Cycult 2024

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, the first ever Cycult took place in Brooklyn, NY. The event that was organized by Shadow Traffic, was described as a “nocturnal bike ride scavenger hunt through the New York Underworld.” The concept was described as:

If you’ve dreamed of starting a cult, this is your chance. Assemble your friends into a themed cult, secure bikes for your followers, and on June 8th put your faith to the test. 

This will be a competitive scavenger hunt where your cult will venture to a series of secret Brooklyn locations where you will perform rites & ritualistic challenges. You’ll earn points during these for your acts of devotion and receive bonus points by finding & doing things from the ordained scavenger list. 

The winning cult proves that they are the truest believers (as measured in points.) These Chosen will receive the Cycultic Mysteries – an ancient tome in which they will etch their beliefs into the annals of time. 

People came up with teams, themes, and assembled at the Prospect Park Carousel at 9PM. From there, they rode bicycles (and with one team appearing to utilize rollerskates and skateboards instead) to various checkpoints in Brooklyn. After the final checkpoint, the participants headed to Gemini & Scorpio a few feet away for an afterparty featuring the announcement of the winning team: Saturday Night Believers (who made quite an entrance to the Carousel) and the runners-up, Spermecki Brothers Family Funeral Home.

I covered the unique bike riding event for Shadow Traffic and the full gallery is available on their website here, in addition to the gallery on this page. There’s also a review by Nicholas Fortugno, a member of Saturday Night Believers here.

Cycult was a lot of shooting, hopping on and off a somewhat heavy CitiBike e-bike, and I appreciated being able to view the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn, plus the Statue of Liberty, very early in the morning on Sunday when I’m usually asleep.