Have you been to any NYC pop ups lately? Well, now’s your chance.
New York City is a city of pop ups. We’ve been to a few pop ups and there while living in other cities, but here you can visit a new pop up every week.
We love that they create a sense of urgency to check them out, and it almost parallels the fact that we set up shop in a city for a year. It’s like our home office is a pop up too!
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Last Updated: May 12, 2025
What is a Pop Up?
So before we get into the pop up shops here, let’s talk about what a pop up is in the first place. Essentially, it is a business that opens for a limited time with a clear start and end date.
They come in many different forms, but most of them are exclusive or special in some way. The goal is never to be permanent, and sometimes they are only around for a month or a year before moving to another city (sounds like us right?).
Technically homegrown pop ups are everywhere and are as simple as someone putting up an umbrella and selling products in a busy area.
They are also your Halloween stores, Christmas shops, and firework stands. But as their popularity has increased, much more extravagant pop ups are being used by companies for marketing purposes. Most of the time, they are aimed to be very Instagram friendly for marketing.
Because we’re always popping up in a new city, we’ve partnered with CORT during our time in NYC. It helps us worry less about our space so that we can focus on exploring the city! Plus, we think they helped us make our place looks really good.
See More: 101 Things to Do in NYC
Types of Pop Ups
- Pop Up Shops – Temporary stores. We see a lot of these, especially during the holidays.
- Pop Up Restaurants – Some are run by chefs who are trying something experimental while others are more traditional restaurants with plans only to stay open for a few months. Also you can check out this blog post CORT did about the Popularity of Pop-Up Restaurants.
- Pop Up Art Installations – They can be more traditional art installations, but often times now, they are also meant to create photo opportunities for Instagram. We also included some art exhibitions in this category.
- Pop Up Events – These cover the rest, and they can come in the form of an impromptu listening party to release a new album to a temporary themed bar. These are typically meant to create hype around an upcoming event, release, or product.
See More: Top Free Things to Do in NYC
Current Pop Ups in NYC
All Day All Night
99 Gansevoort St, New York, NY 10014, map
When: Through July 6, 2025
Admission: $30
…engages sound and the complexities of communication in its various modes. Using musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—she has produced drawings, videos, sculptures, and installations that often explore non-auditory, political dimensions of sound. In many works, Kim draws directly on the spatial dynamism of ASL, translating it into graphic form. By emphasizing images, the body, and physical space, she upends the societal assumption that spoken languages are superior to those that are signed.
Telos Tales
540 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001, map
When: Through August 15, 2025
Admission: FREE
Kwade is known internationally for sculptures, large-scale public installations, films, photographs, and works on paper that engage poetically and critically with scientific and philosophical concepts. Through a distinctive vocabulary encompassing reflection, repetition, and the manipulation of everyday objects and natural materials, the artist raises questions about structures and systems that govern and shape our daily lives. In her contemplative works, which dismantle boundaries of perception, she challenges commonly accepted ideas and beliefs while proposing new modes of seeing and understanding reality.
Carnival
18 Wooster St, New York, NY 10013, map
When: Through June 28, 2025
Admission: FREE
Artists have long been inspired by the themes of the carnival and the circus. They often identify with the craft, the courage, and the sometimes marginal existence of circus and carnival performers. The carnival is a unique social space where attitudes and behaviors that might be unacceptable in “polite society” are allowed to thrive. Artists occupy a similar marginal space, separate from social conventions.
Cadence
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, map
When: Through June 8, 2025
Admission: $30
…presents a new commission by the artist: an all-encompassing environment of tapestry, sculpture, sound, and text that explores the turbulent rhythms of nature and society. Suspended along the highest wall of the Atrium, the large-scale tapestry features a kaleidoscopic range of natural and synthetic fibers created by the artist using innovative digital weaving techniques at the TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Sculptures composed of dyed ropes, interwoven with hand-blown glass and ceramic forms, hang floor-to-ceiling alongside ceramic tablets imprinted with the artist’s poems. These diverse elements are brought together within an immersive sound work based on the voice and breathwork of the artist.
Mean Girls Experience
TBA
When: TBA
Admission: $35 (get tickets)
Prepare to experience the phenomenon as we make Fetch happen! It’s time to embrace the drama and immerse yourself in the grool-est experience of the year. Sign up for the waitlist to enjoy early access to reservations before they open to the general public!
Each reservation comes with your choice of entree and side item, a 90-minute table reservation, access to all photo ops, and a Candy Cane Gram.
The Friends Experience
130 East 23rd St, map
When: Ongoing
Admission: $45
The first flagship location celebrating the iconic TV show opens tomorrow! With two floors of interactive experiences, you can step inside the world of FRIENDS™. Pose on the iconic orange couch, explore newly added original props and costumes from the show like Chandler’s bunny suit, sit in Monica & Rachel’s living room or poke Ugly Naked Guy. There’s even a Central Perk onsite.
Museum of IceCream
558 Broadway, map
When: Thursday to Sunday
Admission: $39
We’re so excited to welcome you to our first Flagship in NYC. MOIC NYC features our most imaginative, multi-sensory installations that bring to life your most delightful dreams: savor the sweetest treats on a floating table, ride our out-of-this-world pink “Celestial Subway,” slide down an epic three-story slide, and follow the sound of a buzz that will lead you to a giant “Queen Bee hive.” Taste our new signature ice cream flavors and ice cream treats along the way, before taking a dive into the largest Sprinkle Pool yet!
Sloomoo Institute
475 Broadway, New York, NY 10013, map
When: Every Weekend 10am – 5pm
Admission: $39
A sensory playground centered around slime, Sloomoo Institute is an artistic universe made to intrigue, delight, and evoke your inner child. Slime inspires wonder and joy, regardless of age. More than a childhood memory or a satisfying social media trend, slime is artful, oozy fun. Even more, it is known to support stress relief as much as it does your imagination.
Jump for Joy: Bouncy Castle of Breasts
233 5th Ave, 10016, map
When: Ongoing
Admission: $3.50 in addition to museum admission
A bouncy castle made up of giant inflatable breasts makes for fun photos and video (adults only). We weren’t that impressed with the museum itself and opted not to pay the additional $3.50 for the photo, but plenty of people were taking advantage of it. The photo they promote uses studio lights, so you won’t get the same look.
Past Pop Ups
There have been some really cool pop ups over the years. Some of our favorites inlcude Rose Mansion, The Seinfeld Experience, 29 Rooms, Mickey the True Original Exhibition, Dream Machine, Museum of Pizza, Bob’s Burgers, and more. Here are some of the highlights.
General Tips for Visiting Pop Ups
- Best time to visit is weekdays during the day and right before it opens. Some of the more popular pop ups have a long wait.
- If shooting with a DSLR, don’t use auto white balance for many of these places especially if you’re in a room with a lot of unnatural colors (ie yellows at Egg House and blues at Dream Machine). We recommend using Kelvin and finding the right setting for your camera.
- Bring a versatile lens and a wide angle if you want to include more of the environment in the shot. A lot of these rooms are small, so the wide angle helps a lot. We couldn’t take certain shots with our DSLR (Canon 5D Mark IV + 35mm Lens), because it wasn’t wide enough so we just used our phones.
How to Find the Latest NYC Pop Up Events?
This one is tough! Most of them make announcements relatively last minute, so these are some ways to stay up-to-date.
- Bookmark this page since we’ll be updating this post as often as possible with new events.
- Set up Google Alerts to see what’s popping up in the news. If you’re not familiar with this, go to the Google Alerts page and enter “pop up new york, nyc pop up” into the Create an Alert section. You can then select how often you want to receive emails (as it happens, daily, or weekly). I do daily.
- Follow Instagram accounts that are constantly featuring pop ups and events. You can follow our accounts (EstherJulee & JacobTheFu). We post stories from pop ups immediately. Also, you absolutely need to follow our friend at FOMOFEED who does a ton of research to hunt down all the best art spots in NYC. For more events and happenings, follow our friend nycharlene.
We’re going to do our best to feature all our favorites in this blog post, but if you know of any pop-ups you think we should check out, send us a message at [email protected].
Best Places to Stay
Planning Checklist
- Get comprehensive insurance for your trip.
- Download these helpful language apps.
- Find a great deal on NYC hotels.
- Arrange a rental car for your trip.
- Book a tour for your visit.
- Get airport lounge access.
- Buy a travel charger to keep your devices charged.
- Get a new backpack for your trip.
- Buy a New York travel guide.
- Pack the appropriate shoes for your trip.
- Don’t forget your in-flight essentials.
- Save money on attractions with City Pass.
Have you visited any of these pop up shops? Do you have something similar in your hometown?
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“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes” – M. Proust
Esther + Jacob
Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, one of the top 5 travel blogs in the US. They believe that adventure can be found near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.
Follow on Instagram (E + J), YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Good to see wonderful snapshots and NYC pop up events.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Thanks, Rammy! Glad you enjoy them!
Please let me know when there a pop up nyc
Thanks so much for sharing these insights about NYC! We’re trying hard to move up there in the near future so I’ll be keeping an eye out for these for sure.
ALSO can I just say that these photos of Esther are so honestly, they’re S T U N N I N G. I’d love tips on how you prepare your outfits for these locations because it’s always great complementary/contrasting colors.
Aww – thanks! We shop for photos for the most part and try to pick bright colors that we know will pop :D
I was wondering how you guys kept finding all of these! Such cool opportunities and experiences.
There are so many that it’s so hard to keep up! You should come back for a visit. :)