Dive Headfirst Into a Marshmallow Swimming Pool at Candytopia

Gear up for a rollercoaster of a sugar rush: New York City has been graced with Candytopia, an immersive, multi-colored candy exhibition.

Following the success of its run in Santa Monica, California, Candytopia has launched at Penn Plaza in Midtown Manhattan through mid-November 2018. Its arrival in New York is unsurprising; in a city overloaded with galleries, museums and art installations, these kind of Instagrammable, food-forward pop-ups have become incredibly common, frequently bursting into abandoned warehouses and empty lots. Over the past few years, New York City played host to The Museum of Ice Cream, Room for Tea, The Rosé Mansion and Egg House, among many others.

At the helm of the Candytopia exhibit is Hollywood Candy Girl Jackie Sorkin, production design expert Zac Hartog, and retail veteran John Goodman, who together have crafted a candy-studded experience for the Instagram-conscious sweets lovers. The original California Candytopia, which just concluded its four-month run, was exceedingly popular and quickly sold out, attracting celebrities like Wiz Khalifa, Drew Barrymore, Christina Aguilera, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

At New York City’s version, visitors are swept through golden gates into rooms studded with interactive art installations – all made out of candy. There’s an entire room dedicated to famous paintings and other artworks, like Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Edvard Munch’s The Scream, meticulously constructed out of a host of colorful candies. In one room, you can dive into a swimming pool filled with half a million plushy white marshmallows; in another, there are tutu-donning candy pigs who fart (yes, fart!) confetti.

Some rooms even pay homage to New York attractions, with a Statue of Liberty sculpture created out of green jelly beans and gummies, as well as a life-size yellow taxi cab, arranged from licorice and banana candies.

Luckily, the candy sculptures aren’t the only candy in the museum. Throughout the exhibit, guests are plied with candy pieces like Trolli gummies and sours, Tootsie Roll pops, and Lindt chocolates, along with a smattering of other edible surprises.

General admission tickets cost $34 for adults and $26 for children aged 4 to 12, both of which can be purchased on the Candytopia website. The exhibit is open every day from 10am-8.30pm Monday-Saturday, and on Sunday from 11am-8.30pm.