Since April 2005, the Guggenheim museum has been drawing crowds of hipsters, yuppies, and supposed sophisticates through the doors of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building on the first Friday of (nearly) every month for “Art After Dark.”
The series—the brainchild of a development program driving membership sales and attendance—has become increasingly popular over its two-year tenure, mainly through word of mouth. It now attracts an average of 2,000 people a night, often reaching capacity by the first hour and a half.
So what’s all the hype? Well, for $25, anyone with enough patience to wait on the snaking line wrapped around the building can enjoy DJs, wine, and the main exhibition on display in the rotunda. Think the glorious trifecta of art, music, and booze for the entrance price to Marquee sounds too good to be true? It is. Unless you know beforehand what you’re getting yourself into and can thus plan accordingly.
If you haven’t yet come to this conclusion on your own by reading this far, let me spell it out for you: get there early. At least an hour beforehand, unless you like waiting an eternity while the one-out, one-in system implemented by 10pm slowly filters you and your posse through over the course of the night.
Once successfully in, I hope you brought cash because that’s all they’ll be accepting. So hit an ATM beforehand, and make sure you take out more than $25. 
Why? Because that $25 doesn’t get you drinks as might be implied, it just gets you in (unless you are a member, in which case all of this is free). So what does your $7 more than the cost of admission to the whole museum during normal hours get you?
Lines—lots of them. There will be lines to the bathrooms, lines to the coat check, lines to the bar, and even longer lines at the front desk once everyone discovers you can’t just order a drink at the bar and pay there but must first purchase drink tickets at $3 a pop. Two drink tickets get you one wine or beer (served in a small plastic cup), one ticket gets you a non-alcoholic beverage or a snack. You do the math: each glass of red, white or Brooklyn Pennant Ale will set you back an additional $6, regardless of alcohol content. So if you haven’t pre-gamed, buy tickets in bulk like you’ve just won ten games of Skee-ball, reach for the vino and may Bacchus be with you.
The only place where there won’t be lines is to see the actual artwork. Probably because several guards and an industrial-size garbage can make sure no spirits of any kind make their way up to mingle with the Velazquezs and Dalis— and for good reason. Yet this is the most rewarding part of the night. After unwinding with a glass of whit
e, you can make your way up the spiraling ramp and take in art imported from around the globe—for February, it was the Spanish masters from El Greco to Picasso—at a time that your otherwise busy schedule might not allow you to.
Plus, visiting DJs such as Ben Neill—composer, producer, and inventor of the mutanttrumpet, who spun space rock, house and downtempo—break the otherwise stiffly serious atmosphere associated with art museums during the day. It’s also a great way to meet people. Not many other nightlife venues can provide an environment where you can maintain conversation over the music, have a ready talking point in the artwork, and attract so many culturally-conscious 20- and 30-somethings in one place.
The bottom-line: First Fridays at the Guggenheim is a refreshing break from the monotony of the bar and club scene. While it may get overcrowded and expensive, consider paying cover your contribution to sustaining the New York City art scene. Just don’t go into this with lofty notions that this is a hoity-toity, sophisticated affair—there is hardly anything cultured about drinking wine out of a plastic cup.
