Cue the laughs, because a cult favorite FRIENDS™ Experience — The One in Chicago — is relaunching in the Windy City!
After going “on a break” due to COVID-19, the wildly popular Friends Experience is reopening in Chicago on Wednesday, March 17!
This immersive, two-story experience brings the FRIENDS™ set to life with interactive activities, irresistible merch, original props, and a dozen nostalgia-packed rooms recreated from the hit series!
To give you a season preview, here are 8 reasons you can’t miss this experience.
1. Health & Safety Regulations
In order to ensure public safety, the experience will be “Monica Clean” and implement numerous sanitary measures. As well as obligatory mask-wearing, temperature checks, thorough cleaning efforts, and social distancing precautions will be in place to ensure a safe and friendly experience.
2. Recreated Sets
The exhibit will feature over 12 rooms with a series of set-pieces for you and your friends to recreate the show’s funniest sketches in its most iconic sets, including Joey and Chandler’s apartment, Central Perk, Monica’s kitchen, balcony, apartment, and more!
3. Interactive Activities
The Pivot heard round the world! There will also be the chance to relive some of the shows most iconic moments. Step into the famous scene where Ross, Chandler, and Rachel try to move in a couch and try your hand at pushing it up yourself on the recreated stair corner from the show. You’ll also get to pop your head through the locked apartment door and take part in plenty of other interactive activities spread out through the experience.
4. Expand Your FRIENDS™ Knowledge
You might have all your pals beat when it comes to FRIENDS™ trivia, but it wouldn’t hurt to get the inside scoop on the ins and outs of the sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman.
Brush up on the show’s lexicon at their wall of ‘Friendisms’, graph the evolution of Rachel’s hairstyle with model replicas, or, examine a psychoanalytic infographic on the inner workings of Ross’s neurosis. At The FRIENDS™ Experience, there’s much more to learn about what made this series so special!
5. Props & Photo Ops
The One In Chicago will feature a series of props used in the show, as well as replicas for your enjoyment. Share your love of FRIENDS™ with the world by capturing your experience room by room. Snag a shot of yourself aside the iconic turkey head, peek through Monica’s purple door, relax on Chandler’s (or Joey’s!) recliner, and pose with a coffee mug in Central Perk!
6. Merch
Trust us, this is one of those immersive experiences where you’d gladly exit through the gift shop. While the exhibit’s merch store includes t-shirts, coffee mugs, books, and other retail favorites — notwithstanding Joey’s bedtime penguin pal, Hugsy. The One in Chicago will feature exclusive merch to the experience, and even more exclusive merch to the experience in Chicago. Oh yeah, and you can actually buy your own real life-sized FRIENDS™ couch!
7. Donations
In an effort to invest in arts and education in underserved communities, The FRIENDS™ Experience will donate a portion of the proceeds to Chicago-based My Block, My Hood, My City — a local youth-focused organization that seeks to benefit local communities through education, service, and social-awareness.
8. Private Access Tickets
You don’t want to miss out on The FRIENDS™ Experience without your real friends at your side. Sign up for private access tickets so that you and your quaran-team can share the joy!
On Wednesday, March 17, The FRIENDS™ Experience will return to The Shops at North Bridge on the Magnificent Mile! Running through Monday, May 31 there will be more than two months to head down and revel in the world of the hit series.
Indulge in your FRIENDS™ nostalgia, check out iconic memorabilia, and re-create some favorite moments at this fan-favorite experience! Tickets for this event are priced at $35 + taxes and fees.