Snapple is converting Pete Davidson and Colin Jost's decommissioned Staten Island Ferry into a floating comedy club on September 17, 2026 — a single-night experiential activation that signals how far beverage brands are pushing live entertainment to cut through fall marketing clutter.
The event, dubbed the Snapple Island Ferry, will dock at Pier 17, 89 South St, New York, NY, with doors opening at 7 p.m. ET and a 60-minute show beginning at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free; a limited number of ticket pairs will drop daily at 3 p.m. ET from September 3–8 at register.snappleislandferry.com, with a one-pair-per-person limit. Guests will be served Snapple beverages and snacks during the performance.
The Production Partners
The show is hosted by Davidson and Jost and produced by The Stand Group, a comedy, entertainment, and hospitality company that co-owns the ferry alongside the two comedians. The Stand Group operates The Stand Restaurant & Comedy Club, The Stand West at Chelsea Market, and Joey Roses in New York City, and previously served as stand-up comedy bookers for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. That production pedigree matters for hospitality operators watching how brands stitch together credible entertainment partnerships rather than one-off celebrity cameos.
"The Snapple Island Ferry is a simple idea with a big payoff: take what people already love about Snapple's personality and bring it to life in the real world," said Brad Smith, Vice President Marketing, Stills & Hydration Portfolio, Keurig Dr Pepper. "The brand has always had a refreshingly funny take on the everyday, and comedy gives us a clear way to bring that to life — by giving people a timely, entertaining break from the things they feel like they should be doing."
Why It Matters for Operators
For restaurant and hospitality professionals, the activation is a case study in beverage-brand experiential strategy — and a reminder that the line between venue, entertainment property, and beverage sponsorship continues to blur. The Stand Group's involvement illustrates how comedy club operators can leverage unconventional real estate (in this case, a vessel purchased at auction in 2022) into branded partnership revenue. Operators running event spaces, rooftop venues, or non-traditional dining formats would do well to note how this model pairs a brand's identity directly with a curated guest experience rather than a conventional sponsorship banner.
Snapple, a brand under the Keurig Dr Pepper umbrella with origins in New York City dating to 1972, is leaning into its hometown identity at a moment when authenticity-driven marketing resonates with urban consumers. The fall calendar timing is deliberate — Smith's team is explicitly positioning the event as a counterweight to the post-summer productivity surge, the same seasonal pressure that affects weeknight dining and bar traffic across the city.
Content from the event will be distributed across Snapple's social channels for those unable to attend in person, extending the activation's reach well beyond the ferry's physical capacity. For beverage industry observers tracking experiential ROI, that social amplification layer is increasingly the primary media value in stunts like this one. Brands in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink segment have accelerated experiential spend as shelf competition intensifies, and Snapple's ferry play fits a broader pattern of RTD brands investing in memorable, shareable moments rather than conventional media buys. Hospitality professionals tracking restaurant and venue marketing partnerships will recognize the format as one now being replicated across categories from hard seltzer to functional beverages.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
