While we are thrilled to offer in-person program for this year’s OHNY Weekend, the pandemic still poses a challenge and some experiences are Reservations Required due to space limitations, security restrictions, or social distancing—look for a red ticket icon or see the full Reservations Required list. Reservations Day is October 7, 2021 and tickets become available starting at 11:00 am Eastern Time.

Securing reservations can be competitive! In 2019, more than 10,000 reservation slots went live on Reservation Day, and 8,000 were booked within the first hour. If you’re a seasoned OHNY Weekend participant, you know it’s an intense day for everyone regardless of how successful you might have been in getting the tours you wanted. What Beyonce is to concerts and Hamilton is to musicals, OHNY Weekend is to architecture tours, and Reservation Day generates a range of emotions that run from exhilaration to frustration.

If this is your first Reservation Day, we recommend taking a few points into consideration as you get ready for the big day. Above all, keep in mind that tens of thousands of people compete for limited spots; last year upwards of 23,000 users visited ohny.org on Reservation Day, and viewed more than 200,000 pages–in one day! While OHNY staff make every effort to work with Weekend Partners to facilitate as much access as possible, some sites have very limited capacity, and tours can be booked seconds after reservations open. If it seemed like all of the tours sold out immediately, it is because they did. If there are 100 slots at a site and 2,000 people are trying to reserve tickets, it can literally come down to a difference of milliseconds!

Where to Go

Reservations are only available online and OHNY uses Eventbrite to manage all reservations for OHNY Weekend. Each Reservations Required tour has its own web listing at ohny.org and a corresponding reservation page on Eventbrite. Reservation links to Eventbrite will be revealed on each site’s webpage on ohny.org at exactly 11am ET on October 7 so you won’t need to refresh – just watch the countdown clock reveal a “Get Tickets” button. See the list of all Reservations Required experiences.

How it Works

There is a $5 fee, per guest, for each reservation, and you will be able to reserve up to two spots at a time. If you are reserving for more than two people on a tour, you will need to go through the reservation process multiple times. This is done to ensure that no one guest is able to book large numbers of spots on any one tour. Once you begin a reservation, Eventbrite gives you eight minutes to complete your reservation, so have your payment information ready before you begin. Note that Eventbrite only allows you to have one active registration at a time so you will not get an edge by trying to register for multiple tours at once.

Know your Priorities

The more excited you are about a tour, the better the chances that lots of other people are excited about it, too. Try your top choice first, but also have a backup ready. Because it comes down to milliseconds, Reservation Day is a lot like a lottery–if you’re lucky, you’ll hit the reserve now button a millisecond faster than someone else. If not, check out the Open Access sites (no reservation required) or Virtual experiences.

Speed it Up

You do not need an Eventbrite account to make reservations for OHNY Weekend tours, but having one can help speed up the reservation process, as Eventbrite will save your name, address, and credit card info (if you grant it permission to do so). This cuts down on the time each reservation will take to complete.

Experience the Weekend Safely

Open House New York Weekend is designed to engage a wide public audience while also protecting everyone’s health and safety and adhering to local and New York State guidelines. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination with ID and mask is required for all in-person OHNY Weekend experiences. OHNY Volunteers and Weekend Partners will be checking for proof of vaccination and ID at entry, and collecting contact information for contact tracing. Participants who do not wear a mask or provide proof of vaccination and ID may not be allowed entry into in-person OHNY Weekend sites.

Open What?

Many OHNY Weekend experiences can be visited on a first come, first served basis without reservations on October 16 and 17. These experiences are Open Access because they don’t have the same space and security constraints as Reservations Required experiences do. If you can’t get a reservation for a tour, there are still many beautiful, fascinating, and wonderful places to explore during OHNY Weekend, including:

• Brooklyn Navy Yard
• Governors Island
• City Reliquary Museum
• Brooklyn Grange: Sunset Park and Long Island City
• Newtown Creek Nature Walk

Good luck and happy exploring!