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Your winter social calendar could use less shivering outside a bar and more sweating beside strangers.
CUL DE SAC, the nonprofit billing itself as NYC’s first year-round outdoor community sauna, is planning a four-month residency at Domino Square in Williamsburg from November through February. Expect cold plunges, guided meditation, immersive sounds and weekend gatherings with local food vendors—all with an inclusive pricing model.
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The organization still needs to raise funds before everyone strips down: it's seeking $35,000 through an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign ending October 29 to cover staffing, sauna improvements, insurance, permitting, and programming. Reaching that goal, organizers say, would allow the winter residency to happen as planned.
The proposed schedule spans six days and more than 40 hours each week. Mondays will bring "FREE SWEAT," with no-cost and discounted sessions offered through partnerships with mutual aid groups, resource centers and community organizations. Tuesday through Thursday, open community hours will combine free-flow sauna and cold plunges with guided meditation, ambient sounds and practitioner collaborations. Weekends get the full treatment: guided sauna sessions, unlimited cold plunges, live and immersive sounds and food from local purveyors.
Sessions will cost $25, with pay-what-you-can options for anyone who needs them. Organizers say nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.
Founder Gabe Bender developed the idea after spending a summer in the Nordics, where communal bathing spaces inspired a more accessible New York version. CUL DE SAC began with a free pop-up at the East Village’s La Plaza Cultural Community Garden in November 2025, using a six-person barrel sauna on wheels. Subsequent events have included a queer sauna night at Domino Park and longer residencies in the East Village. (The group has also offered free sessions to homeless LGBTQ+ youth, public school employees and longtime East Village residents, according to Hell Gate.)
“We should also have public community saunas as infrastructure, as municipal structures, for people to go to and use in the way that you can go to a park or a community garden or a basketball court in New York City,” Bender told the publication.
An exact opening date hasn’t been announced. But for now, consider this a promising reason to keep your swimsuit out of winter storage.