The great thing about life in New York City is that you can do whatever the hell you want on any night of the week. And if what you want is to wrestle sweaty people wearing second-hand rabbit costumes inside a cage, then you're in luck! Because Full Bunny Contact is happening all weekend long.
Now in its third year, Full Bunny Contact is part carnival, part American Gladiators, part twisted Easter egg hunt. A $5 to $25 admission fee grants you unlimited tries at games like Little Bunny Fufus Home Run Derby—a take on baseball in which a man in a rabbit costume throws tiny stuffed rabbits at you, and you attempt to bat them into holes cut out of larger cardboard rabbits. Your bat is also a rabbit, because Full Bunny Contact knows how to stay on message.
Tucked into La Tea at The Clemente on Suffolk Street, it's unlike anything you've ever experienced. My visit on Thursday night included plenty of dodging out of the way of sprinting entertainers—faces painted and furry ears jiggling to and fro—as they tried to knock an egg off of the flowered helmet of a fellow non-bunny competitor. Another painted-up rabbit guy in a denim vest would scream "get 'em!" into the microphone during the races Wabbit Warrior Eggathons. This is basically how the whole night went: costumed bunnies talking trash and fighting dirty in the games they themselves had designed. Happy Easter!
(Scott Heins/Gothamist)
Richard Mark Jordan, 33, was enjoying his time as a bunny Thursday night. "Easter's always been really boring for me, and I like that we're throwing excitement back into the holiday. And I'm not really scaring people, but I am making fun of them a little bit. Adults love taking things like Easter and making them a little bit naughty."
Things were at their naughtiest in the Fully Bunny Contact main event—a cage in which competitors tried to put plastic eggs into plastic baskets while being manhandled by a quartet of borderline furries inside a chain link cage. This is where the most strenuous effort and intense shit-talking happens (on both sides) and can lead to surreal visions. I watched as a tall drunk man lost all the eggs in his basket just as the game's clock ran out, then grabbed one of his bunny opponents (unprovoked!) by the waist and began grinding on his costume cotton tail.
(Scott Heins/Gothamist)
"They were aggressive as fuck," Brooklyn resident Dakota Sky said after her own cage match. "It was more intense than I expected."
Tensions eased during the live Bunny Beauty Pageant, which featured only two actual bunny competitors, Merlin and Quincey. Both were eventually crowned winners in a tie.
Daniel Demello, who worked closely with Full Bunny Contact's founder Tim Haskell to produce the carnival, put it all into perspective: "At its heart this is an off-beat Easter carnival. Why should the magic of Easter die when you're a kid? This city is full of adult children that just want to go out, party, and forget about their hectic lives. Better to take off your frustrations on a bunch of willing rabbits than your friends and coworkers!
(Scott Heins/Gothamist)
Full Bunny Contact runs through Easter—here's the lineup:
6 p.m. - 9:45 p.m. Friday night (Special gay go-go hours from 10 p.m. - 2 a.m.)
1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon (family hours)
3 p.m. - 11 p.m. Saturday night
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Sunday (family hours)
1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday
