Fête Paradiso

Love this carnival. Great for kids — all of the historical rides are great for pictures. Highly encourage everyone to make their way to Gov Island! It’s such a nice island.

This place is so cute. You feel like you’ve stepped back in time and to France. The carousels are some of the oldest I’ve seen and the artwork is amazing. Not a HUGE carnival but super adorable and great for those who want to feel like time traveling for a day.
All rides and games are $ 3, you need to get tickets first (I think 10 tickets is $ 25). Food is separate and they do take credit card there. My friend had the pork sandwich and loved it. I liked the fries and they serve Brooklyn Lager as their draft ($ 7).
Definitely want to go back next year!

There are just a few more weekends to try this out and I say it’s DEFINITELY worth experiencing.
I heard about Fête Paradiso when it first opened. It was something I had on my list to check out. Then, I had an opportunity, a few weeks back, to go with an organized grop. All I can say is that my answer was a huge YES. The photos I had seen were so cool and I was awe-​inspired by the thought of seeing old carrousel pieces dating back to such an earlier time.
The entire event is awesome. The people working the rides are dressed in appropriate attire from the era. The entire event has a feel of another time. Being on Governor’s Island, you really lose the feeling of being in NYC. Yes, it’s a short (FREE) ferry to Governor’s Island, but you are really transported into another land. It’s easy to lose yourself in the imagining how things were in an earlier time.
Just a quick tip regarding the concessions. Concessions within the «Fête Paradiso» area are way over-​priced. If you aren’t willing to wander away a bit, you’ll pay premium prices. If you are willing to cross over to the food area, there are dedicated concession areas and food trucks with very yummy, diverse options. I encourage you to be adventurous and find better, cheaper options.
Re toilets, non-​porta-​a-​poty options are located near the Manhattan ferry landing. These things will become of increasing significance as the length of your visit increases!

Fête Paradiso was my perfect introduction to Governors Island. My family and I spent a Sunday afternoon exploring the island and riding vintage Parisian carousels and carnival rides. I especially enjoyed the Velocipedes, which was introduced in the late 1800’s as a way to help the bicycle, a new invention at the time, gain popularity. It was so fun to actually have to pedal the ride! I also loved the carousel with the ballerina seat, which was the oldest ride at Fête Paradiso dating back to 1850. Throughout the day we listened to music in the transformed bumper car pavilion beer garden (from 1900), admired the antique pipe organ, and even watched a sword swallower (I still do not understand how he did it!). It was quite a magical New York City Sunday.
If you are in the New York City area and want to check out Fête Paradiso, go now! It closes for the season on September 29^th.

This was pretty cool! We wanted to go to the Jazz Age lawn party but got sold out on tickets. Found out about this vintage carnival and decided to come check it out. I’m glad we did coz this was a lot of fun. The food and drinks were expensive but the rides were cool and I felt like a kid having a blast with the rides and eating cotton candy. They’re around until the end of September if I’m not mistaken so go check them out!

Get your ooh la la before the carnival leaves town. This collection of 19^th Century vintage rides is so breathtakingly beautiful in its artistry that you want to go several times… for the rides and just to look at the rides. I was enthralled, enchanted, and totally enamored with these vintage carousels, from the beautiful horses to the jolly pig to the old fashioned bicycles. My favorite ride was the bicycle. You spin forward, you go backwards. How cool is that! The carousel for babies went at a pace I could out walk but hey, the fun is sitting on the jolly pig! And we raced to get on the pig. Sorry kids, all is fair in love and war and racing to get the creature of your choice. I could spend days just admiring the handiwork. I loved even the horses that were too fragile to ride anymore. There is even an old fashioned «organ» with figures that was all handmade and actually plays. There were two vintage ring toss games, with figurines that moved when you activated them. The figures were of famous people from the times and their mouths opened to receive balls and then there was another game where you tossed the ring onto the moving hands/​feet? of the figures. Oh, if I had a backyard, I’d fill it with teepees and carousels.

The little ones liked it here! Çe bon!
So many different kind of carousels and rides. Tickets are $ 3 for all of the rides and activities while the fair is free. Fête paradiso, I think means party paradise, doesn’t live up to its name, but I think it comes pretty close. There’s some French singing in the background and all of the staff and some patrons are wearing period French wear. There’s also the playground if you get bored, but all in all we had a good time.

Super sweet vintage carnival fun.
Gilt City is currently running a 20 carnival tickets for $ 25 deal at
…
Worth checking out on a Saturday before it and September end, especially if you’re enamored with Woody Allen’s «Midnight in Paris»

Fête Paradiso.
That’s French, and not for heavenly feet. Actually, I don’t know what it means, beyond a fun afternoon. Especially if you’re looking for something not too wild, but not without a bit of excitement. Maybe you have kids, this would be great! Or maybe you’re just hanging out with two really cool chicks who like carousels, this would be great too!!!
So basically, it’s like an old timey French carnival. Mostly rides. A couple other minor things. Rides for the wee ones and mild-​to-​lightly-​exciting rides for the bigger kids (like me.) Entrance is free, each ride is $ 3, but there’s a special deal of 10 tickets for $ 25 they don’t tell you about on the site. :)
Go with a girl who is cute and fun and likes to let the little girl out every once in a while. You’ll be glad you did.
check out the site
for directions, info, pics, etc, etc.
They’re open every weeknd until Sept 29.
There’s a beer garden section with burgers and whatnot as well.
Also, if you didn’t know like me, the ferry from lower Manhattan and Staten Island to Governors Island is free. But I’m probably the only person that didn’t know that.