Unsanctioned
A Most Illegal Adventure with New York City’s Wildest Underground Event Planners
The Wanderlust Projects duo are building bars in water towers and romantic getaways in abandoned resorts. They’re shaking up the underground scene—and want to teach you how, too.
Yoni Brook
On a rainy Saturday night in October, a group of 100 strangers have converged on the Waldorf Astoria hotel for an unsanctioned scavenger hunt. Dressed in formal business attire with official-looking name tags, the 19 small teams attempt to blend in with the well-heeled clientele as they race around the hotel for three hours, checking absurd tasks off their lists. Take a picture hugging a guest while wearing his or her bathrobe? Check. Gather the “company” into a maid’s closet? Check. One participant strips down to take a bubble bath in a momentarily empty room. Others deliver room service.
When security catches on (“There’s one group booked here and this isn’t them,” a guard is overheard telling his colleague.) and begins cutting off elevator access to certain floors, attendees slip into back stairwells and, later, freight elevators.
Some planned pop-up activities, like ballroom dancing lessons, have to be scrapped. But the finale to the illicit event goes on as planned: the 80 people who stick it out make their way onto the roof of the hotel for a secret show replete with a burlesque-dancing opera singer, an accordionist, and an upright bassist. Below, midtown New York City literally sparkles.