ApeFest 2021 to 2026: The History of Every Bored Ape Yacht Club Festival

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has held six ApeFests since 2021: in New York in 2021 and 2022, in Hong Kong in 2023, in Lisbon in 2024, in Las Vegas in 2025 and on October 17, 2026 in Charleston, South Carolina. ApeFest is the annual gathering of holders, and tickets are tied to owning an Ape NFT. What sets it apart is the mix of concert and product stage: at Pier 17, Eminem and Snoop Dogg shared the stage, ApeChain launched in Lisbon, and the card game Mudwater in Charleston.

Here you will find every festival with its date, venue, performers and announcements. The most recent one is covered in detail in our review of ApeFest 2026.

Key points at a glance

• Six ApeFests since 2021 in five cities on three continents.
• 1. June 2022: Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed "From the D 2 the LBC" live for the first time at Pier 17.
• 1. November 2023: in Hong Kong, guests reported eye problems after exposure to UV-A light, and Yuga Labs was in contact with 15 of those affected.
• October 2024: ApeChain launched in Lisbon at the only ApeFest held in Europe so far.
• 1. October 2025: in Las Vegas, Yuga presented a clubhouse in Miami and an anime series.
• 1. October 2026: the card game Mudwater launched in Charleston, and tickets required a $99 deposit, refunded after entry.

ApeFest 2021 to 2026: every festival at a glance

Source: boredapeyachtclub.com (Activations), apefest.com, Bored Ape Gazette, as of November 6, 2026.

ApeFest 2021 in New York: a yacht party and a concert in Brooklyn

The first ApeFest began on Halloween weekend 2021 on a yacht in New York, six months after the collection launched. It ran alongside the NFT.NYC conference, only Bored Ape holders were admitted, and wristbands were handed out at the Bright Moments gallery in SoHo. For many, according to the club's website, it was the community's first meeting in real life.

The highlight was the concert on November 3 at Brooklyn Steel with The Strokes, Beck and Lil Baby, introduced by Aziz Ansari, Chris Rock and Questlove. According to Input, around 2,000 guests attended.

ApeFest 2022 in New York: Eminem and Snoop Dogg at Pier 17

From June 20 to 23, 2022, the club celebrated on the roof of Pier 17 in Lower Manhattan, again alongside NFT.NYC. For the first time, holders of Mutant Apes, the club's third collection from August 2021, were also admitted.

According to Stereogum, LCD Soundsystem and Haim played on the first days. On June 23, Snoop Dogg and Eminem performed "From the D 2 the LBC" live for the first time; the music video, in which both appear as Bored Apes, premiered at the festival.

The backdrop was rougher than the year before. The festival fell in the 2022 crypto crash, and two weeks earlier attackers had used the club's hijacked Discord to steal around 32 NFTs worth about 200 ETH, according to The Block. Valuable NFTs are safest when kept separate from your everyday wallet; suitable devices are listed in our hardware wallet comparison.

ApeFest 2023 in Hong Kong: BMW, BAPE and the UV light

From November 3 to 5, 2023, ApeFest left New York for the first time and moved to Hong Kong, instead of Las Vegas, according to nft now. The festival was produced by the agency Jack Morton Worldwide, and the main evening took place on Saturday, November 4, at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. Music was deliberately not the focus.

Products moved to the front instead. According to the club's website, the club showed its partnership with BMW publicly for the first time and launched a fashion collection with BAPE in 25 BAPE stores worldwide. There was also a bodega for Made by Apes, the licensing programme for holders' brands.

The evening is remembered for another reason: afterwards, guests reported eye pain and skin irritation. According to Artnet, Yuga urged those affected in a statement to see a doctor. The company was in contact with 15 people, according to The Block, by its own account less than 1 percent of the roughly 2,250 guests and staff that evening. Media reported more than 15, in some cases over 20, cases. On November 9, 2023, Yuga and Jack Morton Worldwide named the likely cause: UV-A lights in one corner of the venue, as CoinDesk reported.

ApeFest 2024 in Lisbon: ApeChain and the BMW Apecar

From October 18 to 20, 2024, ApeFest came to Lisbon, the first European edition according to the club's website. According to the Bored Ape Gazette, the venue was the former Convento do Beato monastery, and the festival was sold out. French Montana headlined at LX Factory, Anderson .Paak played a DJ set as DJ Pee .Wee, and at the first Ape Market 40 brands from the Made by Apes programme showed their products.

The most important news came on the second evening: ApeChain went live, a dedicated blockchain for ApeCoin based on Arbitrum Orbit, launched according to a press release by the ApeCoin DAO with Yuga Labs and other partners. The APE price doubled at launch, as Decrypt reported. With BMW, the club also unveiled a one-off vehicle: the BMW Apecar, which Cryptoticker took over in September 2025. It is now in Germany, as our report on the Apecar tells.

ApeFest 2025 in Las Vegas: a clubhouse in Miami and an anime series

In March 2025, then-CEO Greg Solano announced the return to the US. The festival took place on Friday, October 24, 2025: the club celebrated at Area15 in Las Vegas with Big Boi, Clipse, Kodak Black and 3LAU, and the party then continued at ComplexCon, for which holders received 1,250 passes. According to the Bored Ape Gazette, tickets required a refundable deposit of $169, and each holder could bring one guest for $269.

In Las Vegas, Yuga announced the club's first permanent clubhouse in Wynwood, Miami, and an anime series the club is developing with partners. It also gave the date for Otherside in the browser, which opened to everyone on November 12, 2025. In November 2026, the club's website lists the clubhouse as "Coming Soon".

ApeFest 2026 in Charleston: Mudwater at Beeple Studios

According to apefest.com, ApeFest 2026 ran over four days with side events across the city. The club held the main evening on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at Beeple Studios on Daniel Island in Charleston, the studio of digital artist Beeple, covering almost 4,650 square metres. Doors opened at 7 pm and closed at midnight local time, which was 1 am to 6 am on Sunday in Germany. According to the Bored Ape Gazette, the headliner was the rapper Offset, and host Beeple had bought his first Bored Ape shortly beforehand. Knights jousting in full armour inside a cage gave people something to talk about, with "AMMA" written on the banners.

The news of the evening was Mudwater. At 11:30 pm UTC, every Bored Ape and every Mutant Ape received a totem in its wallet, and shortly afterwards Yuga Labs launched the club's trading card game, printed and as an NFT on Solana. How it works and what it costs is explained in our Mudwater guide. According to the Gazette, BMW took part for the fourth year in a row. The club sold more Mudwater boxes over the weekend at the pop-up shop in Charleston Union Station.

The ticket rules, according to apefest.com: one ticket per Bored Ape or Mutant Ape against a $99 deposit, refunded within 90 days of the scan at the entrance. Bored Ape holders could bring two guests and Mutant Ape holders one, for $99 each plus tax, with admission from age 18. This year, ownership was verified by the service Glyph. Entry is therefore tied to the NFT: where to buy NFTs and what fees the marketplaces charge is shown in our NFT marketplace comparison.

ApeFest in Europe: Lisbon once, a community meetup in Vienna

There has so far been exactly one ApeFest in Europe, in Lisbon in 2024. According to our research, there has never been an official club gathering in Germany. The club has still been present, at NFT Paris in February 2024 and in May 2026 through Otherside as a sponsor of Ibiza Art Weekend, with 100 tickets raffled to holders.

Outside the US, Yuga spent 2026 mainly in Asia: according to the Bored Ape Gazette, two announced trips by CEO Michael Figge covered eleven stops from Taiwan to Singapore, four on the first tour and seven on the second.

New is a meetup in the German-speaking region: from November 13 to 15, 2026, "Apes in Vienna, German Speaking Ape Club x Belvedere" in Vienna appears on the club's official meetup list. It is a community initiative, not a Yuga Labs event.

From mega-event to a party in the studio

Six festivals, six snapshots. In 2021 and 2022, ApeFest was a multi-day festival with global stars, carried by the peak of the NFT boom: on May 1, 2022, seven weeks before the festival at Pier 17, the floor price of a Bored Ape hit its record of 153.7 ETH according to CoinGecko; in early November 2026 it stood at 5.62 ETH. From 2023, the concert turned into a stage for products and partners, and the format became more compact.

Our view: ApeFest has changed its role. It used to show how big the club is; today it shows what the club plans to do. That does not require four days at the pier, and with Mudwater, Yuga brought something to 2026 that holders could hold in their hands right away. What the festival lacks is closeness to holders outside the US: for the community in Europe, a second ApeFest on this side of the Atlantic would be the strongest signal. Who makes the decisions at Yuga today is described in our analysis of the Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2026.

Disclosure: Dennis Weidner, founder of Cryptoticker, holds Bored Apes, Mutant Apes and Otherdeeds; Cryptoticker took over the BMW Apecar in 2025. This article is not investment advice.