Art World
The Adult Sleepover at New York’s Museum of Natural History Is Back
The highly popular event will take place on May 5 and June 30.
Caroline Elbaor
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This spring, adults will once again have the chance to sleep under the 94-foot-long giant whale at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), with events scheduled to take place on May 5 and June 30.
All of the attractions of previous editions are back: it is for ages 21 and over, with a champagne reception, after-hours access to the museum’s exhibitions (yes, including the Mummies show), a fossil fact-finding tour by flashlight, and music provided by the 12th Night Jazz Trio in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall.
The night also includes a buffet dinner with wine and beer, a late-night snack, and breakfast in the morning.
In the past, however, guests have complained about the cramped cots provided for sleeping and the no-pajamas policy (which the museum put in place fearing provocative nighttime attire), leading to an uncomfortable situation for snoozing. AMNH has asked that visitors bring along their own sleeping bags—a true throwback to childhood. Tickets are steep at $350 a person, and space sells out fast.
As artnet News reported in 2014, mischievous adults apparently brought flasks—“It really shouldn’t end until something’s been tipped over,” the New York Times overheard one saying—but despite the copious amounts of alcohol provided, the night typically remains less than rowdy.
“Explorers can expect to roam through the nearly empty halls of the Museum, where they might run into a herd of elephants in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals or come face to face with looming dinosaur skeletons, including a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex,” the museum’s website boasts.
“This is a one-of-a-kind evening that offers visitors an intimate adventure of discovery that is unlike anything they have ever experienced.”
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