{"id":184369,"date":"2026-04-03T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184369\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:24:07","slug":"nyc-easter-parade-and-bonnet-festival-returns-to-fifth-avenue-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184369\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival returns to Fifth Avenue Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"mo87l\">New Yorkers are ready for the seasonal shift to warmer, snow-free spring weather.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3eqkg\">The city is celebrating in style this weekend with a parade that ditches traditional floats and cars in favor of people \u2014 and pets \u2014 in elaborate hats and costumes.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ev7k\">This year\u2019s Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival begins at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 5, near St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in Midtown. The festivities typically run until about 4 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>What is the Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival?<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"difac\">The parade \u2014 which dates back to the 1870s \u2014 is informal and often involves costumed participants simply showing up outside the cathedral on Easter morning.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"qltn\">The tradition began as a post-church gathering, when New Yorkers would stroll along Fifth Avenue in their finest spring attire, a tradition later popularized by cultural figures like Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyctourism.com\/events\/easter-parade-and-easter-bonnet-festival1\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">NYC Tourism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"fn4ef\">Today, participants move along Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th streets as onlookers gather to take photos. The area around St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, between 50th and 51st streets, is typically the busiest viewing spot.<\/p>\n<p>The event is free and open to anyone who wants to participate or watch.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"dcnk\">There is no formal procession. People simply stroll along Fifth Avenue in costume throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9muoi\">Casey Sobel, a Brooklyn-based artist, has attended the festival for years. She often spends months creating the elaborate hats \u2014 and sometimes full costumes \u2014 that she wears along Fifth Avenue.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"4ibvv\">\u201cIt feels like a beautiful community of people because we are all just there to express ourselves in new and interesting ways without it being a contest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"ehknk\">The mixed-media artist and costume jeweler has transformed herself into a garden gnome, a flower pot and even a giant disco bunny with fluorescent pink fur.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"8kns6\">This year, she plans to go as a teapot.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2938j\">\u201cNot only is this a beautiful artist and creative expression of our excitement for spring and getting to shake off the coldness of winter and being inside and being able to use all the things that are at our disposal within our day-to-day lives,\u201d she said. \u201cBut being able to create something beautiful, elaborate and silly without being able to focus on \u2018Who spent the most amount of money?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What about street closures?<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"6b7oh\">New Yorkers and commuters should expect sections of Fifth Avenue to be closed for the festivities, particularly between 49th and 57th streets.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"4ljq4\">Closures typically begin Sunday morning and last through the afternoon, though the city has not yet released full details.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2gdan\">City officials usually post updates through the Department of Transportation ahead of the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers are ready for the seasonal shift to warmer, snow-free spring weather. The city is celebrating in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-184369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}