A nonprofit that has run a series of pop-up saunas in New York City is now planning a winter residency at Domino Square in Williamsburg, with cold plunges.
CUL DE SAC describes itself as New York City's first outdoor community sauna, according to Time Out. The group is seeking $35,000 through an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign that closes on October 29, with organizers saying that hitting the goal would allow the Williamsburg residency to proceed as planned. Campaign funds would go toward staffing, sauna improvements, insurance, permitting and programming, per the same outlet. The residency's opening date has not been announced.
A Six-Day Schedule Built Around Heat and Cold
The proposed schedule spans six days and more than 40 hours each week, according to Time Out. Mondays would feature no-cost and discounted sessions called Free Sweat, offered through partnerships with mutual aid groups, resource centers and community organizations. Weekends would shift to guided sauna sessions, unlimited cold plunges, and live and immersive sounds.
At the East Village pop-up, sessions were priced at $25, with a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets available. Founder Gabe Bender has framed the project in civic terms, saying public community saunas should function as municipal infrastructure, much like parks, community gardens or basketball courts.
From a Barrel on Wheels to a Four-Month Residency
CUL DE SAC began in November 2025 with a free pop-up at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden in the East Village, using a six-person barrel sauna on wheels. The group has since held a queer sauna night at Domino Park and staged East Village pop-ups.
Separately, CUL DE SAC took over Culture of Bathe-ing's sauna village in Domino Park for a special Queer Night, as detailed in a Substack essay on the city's bathhouse culture. That event sold out hours before it began and drew more than 350 attendees, the essay notes, tying the project into a longer local history of bathhouses like the Continental Baths serving as gathering spaces for communal socializing.
Free Access Has Been Part of the Model From the Start
CUL DE SAC has repeatedly built free or discounted access into its East Village programming. The organization has offered free sessions to homeless LGBTQ+ youth through New Alternatives and the Ali Forney Center, to New York City public school employees, and to longtime East Village residents via the Loisaida Center, according to Hell Gate. The outlet describes Bender as the founder of the nonprofit billed as the city's first outdoor community sauna.
A press release from insider.fitt.co likewise describes the group testing and refining its concept through a series of pop-ups, combining outdoor wood-fired sauna and cold-plunge sessions with rotating DJs, local bites and beverages, and a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets. That release said CUL DE SAC planned to return to La Plaza Cultural Community Garden for three weeks starting September 29, while a separate report from Patch put the East Village pop-up's run at September 28 through October 19 — accounts that differ slightly on the exact start date.
What a Williamsburg Sauna Session Might Look Like
A prior La Plaza Cultural stop was a sauna and cold-plunge pop-up, according to a report from EV Grieve.
Whether the Williamsburg residency will mirror that format remains to be seen. For now, CUL DE SAC's future in Williamsburg hinges on whether its Kickstarter campaign reaches its funding target before the October 29 deadline.
