"We All Want To Pretend This Isn't Happening": Mask-Free Pandemic Parties Are Popping Up In NYC

During his press briefing on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio noted that despite the city making great strides in the fight to contain the spread of COVID-19, there has been a worrying uptick for a very particular group: the infection rate for people between the ages of 20-29 has nearly doubled over the last month. "I understand for so many younger adults it has been a really difficult time cooped up,” de Blasio said. “But we’ve got to keep telling everyone, particularly younger adults, how important it is to stick to what has worked: the social distancing, the face coverings, getting tested."

One thing that is threatening the progress that has been made is the sudden increase in parties in which young people are throwing caution — and social distancing guidelines — to the wind as if the pandemic is over, or somehow can't touch them. Last week, we reported on how the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City has been hosting a series of crowded pool parties facilitated by questionable on-site rapid coronavirus testing. But they aren't the only place in the city throwing carefree pandemic parties.

Multiple other underground parties have been taking place every weekend in the city, spread via WhatsApp chat groups and text chains with promoters asking people not to publicize the illicit events. For one such event, which took place at a lounge near Bryant Park last week, a promoter told partygoers they were allowing up to 90 people inside, adding, "Don't share this information on SOCIAL MEDIA! This is a private space and we are interested in no drama policy. PLEASE SHARE IT IN PRIVATE MSGS."

Gothamist has reviewed photos, videos and accounts of events that allegedly have happened or are planned at locations including The Williamsburg Hotel and more venues and bars in the city, as well as promoters including Nocturnal Radio Live. Each have featured young clientele and a complete lack of mask compliance and social distancing.

"I don't understand why people are still trying to do it," DJ and promoter Grier Newlin said about the parties. Newlin was working with other DJs and promoters to start a nightlife workers union before the shutdown started, but now he says he's accepted that he'll likely be out of the nightlife world for the next year. "We're organizers, so we should be organizing protests, things like that. There's plenty of stuff to do if we want to put our organizing energy behind things. These [parties] are really vain, I don't know what what the point of them is."

Below, you can see a few videos showing events that happened at The Williamsburg Hotel this month. According to their website, the hotel "encourage[s] our guests to practice social distancing by standing 6 feet apart from groups not traveling together" and that "overall capacity of all of our venues including the rooftop has been reduced by 50% to ensure all lounge chairs, daybeds and seating is at least 6 feet apart." They do not specify whether it is required for people in the hotel to wear masks while in public spaces.

As one person wrote about the first video, "I was at this event. The security guard at the door was asking everyone to wear their mask and was denying entry to those without. People were giving him a hard time."

According to NYC guidelines, masks must be worn if you are "out in public and keeping a 6-foot distance from others is not possible." In addition, no one is currently allowed to gather "in groups of more than 25" in the city, which is clearly being violated in all of the videos throughout this story.

In the video below, which was originally geotagged as The Williamsburg Hotel, it appears the beds at the pool area are not spaced six feet apart, despite the hotel's assurances.

Asked about the parties, Williamsburg Hotel manager Julita Kropiwnicki said the hotel is committed to the safety of guests, employees and community. "We enforce a strict policy of masks, and have severely limited capacity and the amount of people permitted in our outdoor venues," she said. "We continue to work to make sure that all team members and guests comply with our policies and take this very seriously. We are one of a small number of hotels that have stayed open continuously throughout this pandemic period hosting front line workers, doctors and nurses. Our commitment to the safety of our guests and team members is our #1 priority."

"It's 1000% too early for parties," said Kristina Alaniesse, who runs the kristinaformayor Instagram account and has become something of a nexus point for people in NYC's nightlife scene trying to vent about their frustrations with the careless partying that has emerged. "I think it's very important to spread the message to DJs, promoters, patrons and venues in general that now is not the time, and to be responsible and care about the future of New York."

Osvaldo "OJ" Jimenez, 44, has been enmeshed in the nightlife scene for over 15 years, working as everything from a barback to a bar owner/manager. In addition to being an author and photographer, he also runs the HiLoveNewYork Instagram account, which has hosted some of the videos of the recent ragers. "It's not me outing these places, but the community as a whole," he explained. "These are average people into nightlife, people who work in it, and they're like, this looks wild, and they're sending me stuff."

He says there's a schism in the nightlife community that is now boiling over: "All the promoters and owners I know are taking COVID serious, it comes as a shock to us that these venues that cater to out-of-towners are disregarding the rules that we need to abide by to get out of the pandemic together."

Prince Terrence, a DJ who runs the cultural magazine Cell.Vision, has a similar view of what's been happening. "All my friends are New York nightlife industry veterans, we were the people doing after hours events and illegal warehouses and stuff like that," he told Gothamist. "We realize this is a public health emergency, this isn't a joke, and all of my peers are super on board with only having events if it's safe and the proper precautions are being taken. But of course there's going to be people and places that abuse that to make money—this has become more about making a dime than about providing a fun environment."

You can see videos from events that allegedly took place at locations in Williamsburg, Little Italy and the Meatpacking District.

Jimenez isn't wholly against the idea of people having small get-togethers to socialize, but says what he's seen happen in recent weeks in parts of the city are looking like mini-Mardi Gras. "I do believe there's probably a little microcosm of responsible adults who could make this happen," he said. "But there's one factor in all of it that could change everything: alcohol. Once people are drunk, all those rules go out the window. And now the clubs have to police and teach adults how to behave. And it isn't working."

Terrence, the DJ, believes he contracted coronavirus in March at a nightclub. "There's no doubt thats how I got it," he said. "I wasn't able to get a coronavirus test, but I was able to get antibodies test when it was made available. It was obvious I got it from a club. You're in a place where everyone's screaming at the top of their lungs, that's exactly how you get it."

"When you're in a club, you're not really thinking about what's going on outside, which I think is the goal," he added. "We all want to pretend this isn't happening, but just because we're not looking at it doesn't mean it's not happening."

Reports of underground parties have been popping up across the city, including a recently relaunched Nocturnal Radio Live indoor dance party which happened in Brooklyn last weekend (see video above), and is scheduled again for July 18th. Many DJs are complaining that these events are being organized by promoters and venues who were not as active in normal times, but are now capitalizing off of a situation where they can make money off a pent-up demand for revelry.

Jimenez noted that there are underground parties "going on in parts of Bushwick every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I see the invites. They offer fake COVID tests for $50 or $60," he added. "It's like we're just trying to put bandaids on an amputated part of our life."

Some critics of the pandemic party scene say the city is failing to adequately enforce the rules they've established, and that local and federal agencies are not helping people make the safest decisions.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office said that the city has been in contact with both the Williamsburg Hotel and Ravel Hotel "to make sure they understand the rules," and added that they're "continuing to monitor this place and others like it." They emphasized that they are focused on helping to educate venues to be able to stay open while keeping guests and staff safe: "Restaurants are learning how to do this on the fly, after a really tough few months, and we want to get them into compliance."

Sources tell Gothamist that despite this, another "BIG party" happened at Profundo in Queens in recent days; an Instagram post by a promoter advertising a "pool party" on Monday has since been deleted.

Of course, pandemic partying isn't exclusive to NYC. The Wall Street Journal reports that there's been a new outbreak in Tokyo, which included their city's largest single-day increase since April. Out of those cases, three-quarters were among people in their 20s and 30s, "many connected with nightlife districts."

There have also been reports of specific "COVID parties," some more credulous than others, happening around the U.S. The NY Times reports that a 30-year-old man died after attending one of these gatherings in Texas recently. Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, said that just before he died, the patient allegedly told his nurse, “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.”

Dr. D. Clay Ackerly, an internal medicine and primary care physician practicing in Washington, DC, wrote a piece for Vox this weekend saying that the unknowns of the disease vastly outweigh what scientists know about it, which means it's even more vital that people stay vigilant: "With no certainty of personal immunity nor relief through herd immunity, the hard work of beating this pandemic together continues. Our efforts must go beyond simply waiting for effective treatments and vaccines. They must include continued prevention through the use of medically proven face masks, face shields, hand-washing, and physical distancing, as well as wide-scale testing, tracing, and isolation of new cases."

Is there a medium ground between safe social gatherings and the pandemic parties we've been seeing?

"I don't think anyone minds people doing things with proper precautions, eating outdoor at restaurants and similar situation to that I think would be fine," said Terrence. "But we don't want our numbers to skyrocket so some people could go to parties and promoters could make some money. The thing that makes me most sad about it is how hard New Yorkers came together and worked to get the numbers where we are now—I don't know why anyone would want to put that in jeopardy."

"I love nightlife, but New York is my home," Jimenez added. "Every time you leave one of these events, you could be carrying the virus into your community. Who cares about techno?"

Update: Gothamist initially identified Common Ground as one of the bars hosting illicit parties because of various photos and videos tagging the bar as the location of a July 12th birthday party featuring DJ Mark Wolf (who was also wearing a Common Ground shirt there). This event, which included over 25 people and seemingly little in the way of masks or social distancing, actually took place at Buona Notte in Little Italy—you can see one of the videos here.

In addition, Andres Diaz, the owner of SoHo bar/restaurant Her Name Was Carmen, has denied that any parties have taken place or were planned to take place there. "I don't want to throw away the good work we've been doing just to make a couple bucks," Diaz, 32, told Gothamist. "On principle, I am against these parties, because I know people who died of this."

A source told Gothamist that they had been invited to an "underground" birthday party in the basement of the bar this coming Friday, but Diaz said unequivocally no such event was planned. "There have been offers, a lot of people have contacted me to do cocktail parties, birthday parties, and I've been denying them," he said. "Maybe [the promoter] mentioned our name and used our name because we have a good reputation, I don't know...but I would never want to take advantage of this situation to make money."

Diaz added that he too has heard of other venues hosting illicit parties around the city, but his bar has been shutdown since the start of the pandemic, and only is planning to reopen with outdoor dining this week. "We're trying to be very good neighbors and very good New Yorkers by supporting health care workers—we raised almost $50K to send to hospitals, we've sent thousands of meals to them," he added.