Cheap$kate: FREE events in NYC this weekend

Opening

Citi Pond at Bryant Park Grand Opening Ceremony
It's time to break out the skates and slide on over to Bryant Park. Citi Pond at Bryant Park officially opens for its seventh season today as Manhattan's only FREE ice skating rink. (You DO have to pay for rentals, though.) The official Grand Opening Ceremony will take place tomorrow at 6 p.m. with live performances from hit Broadway musicals and routines from Olympic figure skaters and a synchronized ice-skating team. Watch the ceremony, then take to the ice yourself - and once you've had enough skating, peruse the Holiday Shops, which also open this weekend. Come back on Saturday for the Fall Fest with a Halloween costume contest, pumpkin carving and decorating, face painting, skating to Halloween-themed music and giveaways. The rink is open daily from 8 a.m.-10 p.m., and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. (Grand Opening Ceremony, Friday, 6 p.m.; Fall Fest, Sat., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; FREE, Citi Pond at Bryant Park, btwn W. 40th and 42nd sts. and Fifth and Sixth aves., citipondatbryantpark.com)

Festival

Highland Park Fall Harvest Festival & Pirate Day
Shiver me timbers! Don your eye patch and sail down to Highland Park for the Highland Park Fall Harvest Festival and Pirate Day. Enjoy a piratey day with the family that features horse and carriage rides, crafts, games, a pumpkin patch, treasure hunt, pirate show and pirate music. (Saturday, noon-3 p.m., FREE, Highland Park, Elton St. and Jamaica Ave., Queens, 718-235-4151, nycgovparks.org)