Celebrating Holi with 555TEN and Stage 48

Every year, millions of people around the world come together for a celebration of color and dance called Holi. In Manhattan, of course, they celebrate this ancient Hindu festival on a rooftop, complete with a full bar and live music. That’s the scene in Hell’s Kitchen where tickets for Stage 48’s “Holi in the City” have sold out five years in a row. Taking place just minutes from the Midtown NYC apartments at 555TEN, the event combines the best elements of the Holi celebration and NYC’s institution of the weekend brunch to create a new tradition that’s as good for the soul as it is for the Instagram feed.

Holi goes back at least as far as fourth century India as a festival marking the beginning of spring, and its modern traditions recall these ancient roots. Celebrants used the festival as a way to break free of the rigid caste system and engage in playful water and colored-dye fights with their peers and elders in a chaotic whirlwind of color, music, and dance. In a nod to romance, the tradition of throwing colored powder — resulting in the eye-catching Holi photos that made the festival famous — was inspired by the mythological love story of Krishna and Radha. The colored powders at the heart of the Holi festival represent their love as well as the happiness and freedom that come with the new season.

Today, Holi celebrations take many forms across the globe, all of which involve dousing fellow celebrants with water and colored powder to create psychedelic scenes. At Stage 48, participants are asked to wear white clothes and head to the rooftop for an afternoon of dancing and colors, all to tunes played by live musical performers. Beverages and complimentary appetizers are on hand should anyone need fuel to keep them on the dance floor. And roving photographers are always nearby to capture the colorful magic. And thanks to the organic colored dyes provided by Stage 48, guests can safely paint themselves blue or eye-catching pink.

When the dancing is done, residents of the luxury rental apartments at 555TEN can retreat to their Midtown homes to wash off in their Porcelanosa-tiled bathrooms and dump their newly dyed clothes in their in-unit Bosch washer/dryer for a quick rinse. At 555TEN, you’re never far from the best that Manhattan has to offer, so head over to the building’s website and start your new Midtown life today!