Brooklyn Bridge Park This Weekend: Kite Festival Saturday, Photoville All Weekend, and the Best 80-Degree Forecast of May

Pier 5 turns into a sky full of color Saturday from 11am to 3pm for Brooklyn Bridge Park’s annual Kite Festival — the one day a year kite-flying is allowed in the park — while Photoville’s opening weekend takes over the rest of the park with 65+ free outdoor photography exhibitions. With temperatures hitting the low 80s by Sunday, this is the weekend to live by the water.

This is the rare May weekend where the calendar and the forecast actually cooperate. Brooklyn Bridge Park hosts two of its biggest free events of the year — the annual Kite Festival on Saturday and Photoville’s opening weekend Saturday and Sunday — under a forecast that climbs from the high 70s on Saturday to the low 80s on Sunday. If you’ve been waiting for permission to spend a full weekend outside, this is it.

Kite Festival at Pier 5: Saturday, May 16, 11am–3pm

Here’s the catch most New Yorkers don’t realize: kite-flying isn’t actually allowed in Brooklyn Bridge Park the rest of the year. The Kite Festival is the one day annually when Pier 5’s turf fields open up to the sky, and it draws families from across the five boroughs.

The event is free, and the park provides a limited number of kites to borrow plus a few giveaways. Live music, hands-on crafts, games, and programming from international community partners — including kite-making traditions from around the world — round out the afternoon. Bring your own kite if you have one. Pier 5 sits at the southern end of the park, accessed easily from Atlantic Avenue.

How to get there

Subway: 2/3 to Borough Hall, 4/5 to Borough Hall, R to Court St — all about a 10-minute walk.
NYC Ferry: The South Brooklyn route stops at Pier 6 Brooklyn Bridge Park — right next to Pier 5.
Bike: The Brooklyn Greenway runs straight through the park.

Photoville Opening Weekend: Saturday and Sunday, May 16–17

Photoville turns 15 this year, and the festival’s opening weekend community celebration takes over Brooklyn Bridge Park with 65+ free outdoor photography exhibitions displayed in shipping containers and across the lawns. The whole festival runs through May 30 with 85+ exhibitions citywide, but opening weekend is when the park itself becomes the show.

What’s actually happening on the ground:

Free hands-on workshops from VSCO, the Penumbra Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Creatively Wild, and Cynthia Santos Briones
Artist talks and panel discussions throughout both days
Photo walks around the park with festival photographers
Smorgasburg pop-up for food and drinks on Sunday at Emily Warren Roebling Plaza
Saturday night: "Boroughs In Focus" — a special projection of photos from 35+ photographers cast onto the Brooklyn Bridge itself after dark

Sunday’s community celebration runs 12–8pm at Emily Warren Roebling Plaza and includes a photobooth, tintype portraits, and arts-and-crafts stations alongside the Smorgasburg pop-up.

The weather is going to cooperate

The forecast as of Friday morning calls for a high near 78°F on Saturday with comfortable evening temperatures, then a warm-up to around 84°F on Sunday. Translation: this is your first real summer-preview weekend of 2026. The breeze along the East River will be at its best in the late morning and again after 5pm — exactly when both the kite winds and the Photoville projections will be at their most photogenic.

What to bring

Sunscreen and a hat. The piers offer minimal shade, especially Pier 5.
A refillable water bottle. Fountains are scattered through the park.
Cash for Smorgasburg vendors on Sunday, though most accept cards.
A real kite if you own one — the giveaways will go fast.
A picnic blanket. The Pier 1 Lawn is the best spot to settle in between events.

Make it a full day

Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the city’s most layered green spaces — kayaking returns in late May, the seasonal pools at Pier 2 open in June, and the Pier 5 turf fields are open for pickup soccer when not hosting events. After Saturday’s Kite Festival winds down at 3pm, walk north toward DUMBO and grab a slice at Juliana’s, ride the Jane’s Carousel, or just find a bench at Pier 1 and watch the sun cross the bridge. For Sunday, plan to stay through golden hour — the bridge views from Pier 1 around 7pm are the reason people put up with NYC the other 51 weeks.

Pro tip: Arrive early, leave late

Both Saturday and Sunday will draw heavy crowds — Photoville alone pulled north of 90,000 visitors during its 2025 run. Arrive at the park before 11am, do the Kite Festival first if you’re going Saturday, then ease into Photoville’s exhibitions when the midday crowd thins. The festival containers stay accessible until sunset.

If kites and photography aren’t your thing

Other Brooklyn Bridge Park weekend baseline: free fitness classes return throughout May at Pier 1 and Pier 5, the kayak launch at Pier 2 reopens for the season later this month, and the 11-mile car-free Hudson River Greenway just across the harbor is at peak May condition for cyclists, runners, and walkers. The park is the city’s gym this weekend — don’t let a clear forecast go to waste.

Free kayaking from Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse and the Downtown Boathouse at Pier 26 returns on May 23 — full waterfront kayaking guide coming soon.