Greetings again,

The 2003 Eisteddfod New York Organizing Committee intentionally left Saturday night free. After the special "Meet the Copper Family" workshop ends at 7:45 PM, festival attendees are welcome to stay around until the wee hours of the morning for informal singing and jamming. We will keep at least two room open for that purpose.

Alternatively, people are free to explore the delights of New York City on a Saturday night in the summer. It's just a short subway or cab ride from Metrotech to lower Manhattan, where you will find Tribecca, Chinatown, Little Italy, SOHO, NOHO, Greenwich Village, and a host of other neighborhoods where people flock from all over the world. Hang around the "anti-folk" scene of the East Village, if you will, or take in some jazz, or or reggae, or Latin dance music, or many of the other musical genres you may not find at the Eisteddfod-NY this year. Or just hang out at the South Street Seaport and enjoy whatever is happening.

If you are really adventurous, take the #7 Flushing Line train from Times Square or Grand Central and get off at the 74th Street elevated station in Jackson Heights, Queens. Or take the E or F train from West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, and get off at the Roosevelt Avenue - Jackson Heights subway station. The two stations are connected, and either way you will emerge in the heart of New York's Indian-Pakistani-Bengali community. Wander along 74th Street north from Roosevelt Avenue to 37th Avenue, and then turn either left or right and walk a block or two. The sight, the sounds, and the smells will carry you away to somewhere in South Asia.

And then, if you are looking for a place to eat, just pick any of the many all-you-can eat buffet restaurants. Or favorite is the Jackson Diner, now greatly enlarged from when it had been an old-fashioned diner. It is currently located on the east side of 74th Street just a little north of the elevated station. The cross streets are 37th Road just to the south, and 37th Avenue to the north. (For purposes of orientation: 74th Street in Jackson Heights in a northbound one-way street.)

There are many other adventures possible. Along with the usually crowded New York City tourist attractions, there are many less frequented places to visit. Among these are the Cloisters in upper Manhattan, Garibaldi's house on Staten Island, Edgar Allen Poe's cottage in the Bronx, and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Bird Sanctuary in Queens. OK, they are all usually closed at night, but why not come to New York a few days early and/or stay a day or two late. Then you can really start becoming an urban explorer.

--- Steve