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This week saw an epic snowstorm on the East Coast, and in New York City, an epic snowball battle royale in Washington Square Park immediately followed. This has long been a natural chain of events: Growing up in Newark, a snow day meant war. It might begin innocently enough, with a few kids at the park lobbing loose powder, the kind that bursts midair—but the laughter would stop once the first hard thump eventually landed. Then some older kid would decide that this was personal, and within minutes it was a full campaign of snowballs and tackle football in our park turned blank white. Somebody always got hit too hard. Somebody always went home crying. The next day that same kid walked into school with a black eye and a limp, but they were treated like a hero returned from battle.

Things haven’t changed much, except now everyone has cameras, and everything looks terrible on video. There’s also a difference in scale. When I was a kid, forty, maybe sixty kids, tops would show up for a fight. Now, all it takes is for a content page to drop a flyer and poof: a crowd that can swallow the park whole.

After nearly 20 inches of snow and a viral callout from Sidetalk—a hilarious New York-focused account with 4.4 million followers on TikTok and 1.8M on Instagram—thousands showed up to Washington Square Park for the battle. Watching the clip afterward, I felt real FOMO. It looked like the most fun anyone could have in a blizzard. There were no tickets or RSVP links, nothing was for sale. It was an internet meet up, a celebration of snowfall in a city where strangers could........

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