For our latest mission, thousands of people followed secret, synchronized instructions delivered via headphones at Hudson River Park’s Pier 84. The crowd of around 2,000 people blended in by the entrance to the pier. The app-powered audio started playing at exactly 6:30 PM.

After surprising random strangers in the area with high fives, strange walks, and an unexpected country line dance, participants convened at the end of the pier for some ballet and a spray bottle battle finale.

This was all part of our nineteenth annual Mp3 Experiment event, held every summer in New York City and toured around the world.

We support this free event by touring it to schools, festivals, and conferences. If you want to hire us to stage one for your organization, see here for more details and how to get in touch.

The Mp3 Experiment is created each year by Charlie Todd and Tyler Walker. All music is by Tyler Walker.

A huge thanks to the amazing community of people that continue to come out to be a part of this event every year. We’re so proud of what a diverse, joyful celebration the Mp3 Experiment has become. As silly as the project is, it’s life-affirming to be in a crowd of strangers, all smiling, laughing, and working together.

If you’re new, be sure to join our email list to be the first to hear details for next year’s event. We also have an NYC Mp3 Experiment Facebook group you can join.

The Mp3 Experiment 19 was presented in partnership with Hudson River Park and Make Music New York. Recorder flutes were generously donated by Rhythm Band Instruments.

This year, participants were instructed to dress in bright, solid colors (“bright as you can find in your closet! Day glo, neon, etc.”) It was fun watching people arrive and being able to tell who was a part of it based on their colorful outfits. Everyone spread out in the area around the entrance to the pier, and then at exactly 6:30 PM, our smartphone app began playing the audio track in sync.

One of the early instructions was to try to hide from people not participating.

Participants formed long lines on either side of the walking/jogging path by the river and cheered on random joggers as they ran by. Imagine going for your normal evening run and suddenly passing by a crowd of 2,000 people cheering for you.

Participants were told to walk towards the end of the pier and given instructions to walk like different types of people you might find in the area (tourists, Hell’s Kitchen locals walking their dogs, etc.)

We played a rousing game of “musical benches” where participants had to scramble to find a seat on one of the pier’s many benches whenever the music stopped.

Participants were told to make a giant single file line along the pier’s metal railings and were then prompted to do a series of ballet moves.

Everyone brought cardboard squares (cut up from their recycling) and we played tic-tac-toe, using the tiles on the pier as our board. Participants partnered up and played the game one-on-one, and then later we played a “massively multi-player tic-tac-toe” where everyone played at once.

Next up was a giant group game of Scrabble, using the cardboard squares to spell out words together, again using the tiles on the pier as a game board. Participants were instructed to write random vowels and consonants beforehand. Most of the tiles on the pier are pink, so there were many double word scores.

Next up was an Mp3 Experiment classic, freeze tag!

“People wearing glasses are it!”

We partnered again with Make Music New York on this year’s event, and for the “make music” portion of the experiment, participants sat on the ground and played music together with instruments they brought from home. We also handed out a “special prop” to the first 500 people that arrived, that was revealed to be a recorder flute, donated by Rhythm Band Instruments.

Next up was “Dance Captain,” a recurring favorite of recent years, modeled after Improv Everywhere’s Dance Captain Wanted project. Brave volunteers stood on top of benches on all sides of the pier and danced as the crowd copied their every move.

For the finale this year, we had participants bring a spray bottle filled with water. Everyone turned the bottles to “mist” mode and together made a huge mist storm. This was quite nice because the heat index was around 90 degrees!

The Intrepid Air and Space Museum let us put a camera operator on the deck of the air craft carrier next to the pier. Pretty cool vantage point! The mist storm looked awesome from up there.

Next everyone turned their spray bottles to “spray” mode and had a massive battle. The 90 degree weather meant everyone was happy to get wet.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to narrator Steve. It was another super fun year, and we can’t wait until next year for the 20th edition of the Mp3 Experiment in NYC. Mark your calendars for June 21, 2025, and we’ll see you there.

Mission Accomplished

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To find out about future Improv Everywhere projects be sure to sign up for our Mailing List (select NYC events if you want to hear about participation opportunities in NYC).

HIRE US
We regularly tour The Mp3 Experiment around the world to places like Berlin, Germany and Adelaide, Australia and to college campuses in the US like UNC and Texas Tech. If you’re part of an organization (festival, conference, university student activities board, arts group) that is interested in commissioning an Mp3 Experiment, get in touch via our contact form. Here’s some more info on our touring version.