Simply put, this is a roundup of our favorite non-music events each year. This is why we love living in New York City.

No Pants Subway Ride

Every January

[Photo by kenyee]

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION:
1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it

Organized by Improv Everywhere, the annual No Pants Subway Ride started in 2002 and has picked up more steam every year. This year’s subway ride had about 1,300 pantless participants.

Tip: Wear underwear, nakedness attracts police.

Idiotarod

Every January

[Photo by aur2899 (Bklyn Museum Web)]

[Photo by Tod Seelie / Sucka Pants]

“The Iditarod is the famous long-distance race in which yelping dogs tow a sled across Alaska. The IDIOTAROD is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of dogs, it’s people, instead of sleds, it’s shopping carts, and instead of Alaska it’s New York City. Teams of five race for cash prizes and glory.”

Tips: Sign your team up early, “obtain” a shopping cart early and arrive at the starting point early. Losing the pack before the race even starts sucks so don’t be lazy, we speak from experience. We’re pretty lazy.

Paping Soap Box Derby

Every August

[Photo by the parallelist]

Tip: The Paping Soap Box Derby in Brooklyn picked up some press this year and was cancelled. Sign up for the mailing list to find out about any last minute location changes.

Bike Kill

Every October

“Bike Kill is one of the greatest, craziest NYC events. Jeff Stark of www.nonsensenyc.com/ notes that Black Label’s “Bike Kill” is, “The hardest, purest event all year. And you know, while it’s not a good reason to go to an event just because when you look back at the pictures 20 years from now you’re going to say, “Jesus, that shit was so fucking cool,” it’s something. Two years ago the Bike Kill ended with a jet bike. Last year Black Label turned over a car and beat the shit out of it with skateboards and BMX bikes in some sort of Lord of the Flies reverie. Yeah, going to Bike Kill is like walking on the set of some movie you’ve never seen, except get the fuck out of the way because there’s a bike flying right for your head and someone just hit you with a loaf of bread. We’ve always understood the event as not just a celebration of bikes, but a celebration of doing something all on your own, about taking what you care about and sharing it with whoever happens to come on by. And then someone will vomit on the street and we’ll remember that we were getting a little full of ourselves. Still. The most important thing to remember: Hop on and hold tight. And watch out for whatever comes late.”

Tip: This event is a little crazier than anything else on this list, it is also our favorite. Bike Kill is absolute mayhem and I can’t believe it happens every year without any police interference. Wear shitty clothes, our friend was tagged with grafitti and he didn’t notice until late in the night. Seriously. It was funny.

Santacon

Every December

[Photo by Dave Surgan / ObsceneNYC.com]

“SantaCon is a not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious & non-logical Santa Claus convention, organized and attended for absolutely no reason.”

Tips: Cheap Santa costumes can be found at dollar stores for $12. You also pass through a number of heavy tourist areas, don’t get an open container ticket. Use your head, drinking at the ice rink at Rockerfeller Center is not the best idea.

That goes for all of these events. You are with a few hundred people so as long as you don’t do anything extraordinarily stupid you’ll have the best time ever and won’t get in trouble. The cops have bigger things going on, it’s another beauty of the city. To keep up on last minute happenings, you can subscribe to our blog or follow us on Twitter.