Before celebrity authors mingled with the masses this weekend at The New Yorker Festival, they gathered Friday night at the TriBeCa restaurant Pace to chat amongst themselves.

Calvin Trillin and his sister, Sukey Fox, stood near the dessert table (Ms. Fox raved about the biscotti; there was also chocolate and hazelnut gelato). The two had left a party earlier in the Meatpacking District because it was too loud.

At Pace, they spoke to humorist Andy Borowitz, who did a convincing impersonation of Senator Kerry. Ms. Fox, who came from Texas for the festival, offered some ancient history on her brother, but not exactly dirt: She was the one who named him Bud. Also, she said, he was a “big cheese” at Southwest High – head of the yearbook and student body president.

Literary agents Georges and Anne Borchardt, whose clients include John Lahr, Ian McEwan, and Tracy Kidder, sampled from a buffet of Italian cheeses. E.L. Doctorow and Ben McGrath mingled a few feet away.

Steve Martin’s first stop was at the bar, which served wine and cocktails made with plum syrup. Later he sat down with Seymour Hersh and Salman Rushdie.

The chief executive of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, and a book editor there, David Hirshey, found seats at a table with Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

ZZ Packer caught up with a Yale classmate, Allison Silverman, who writes for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

Gary Shteyngart flew in from Italy for the event to speak on Joseph Brodsky. Zadie Smith came from London with her husband.

“It’s my favorite festival in the world – it has the best writers, in the best setting, and it’s the least stressful,” Ms. Smith said.

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Artists were the guests of honor at an opening party at the Rubin Museum of Art on Saturday, the first day the museum was open to the public. On the invite list were more than 100 artists who created flags for the opening ceremony, including Kiki Smith, Gregory Botts, Douglass Rice, and Michele Oka Doner, who wore her father’s 1968 Democratic convention pin.

“You are the best party crowd we’ve had,” Shelley Rubin told partygoers.

Spotted: the architect who transformed the former Barneys store into a museum, Richard Binder; the executive director of Symphony Space, Cynthia Elliott (Mr. Rice’s wife); the designer Prabal Gurung, who works for Michael Vollbracht at Bill Blass and has his own line; Nathan and Lochi Glazer; and the youngest and newest board member of the museum, Omar Amanat, 31, who met Mr. Rubin at a Sufism class.