A pop-up museum devoted to the love of ice cream has quickly become one of the most popular attractions in New York City this summer. When the exhibit closes at the end of the month, more than 35,000 ice cream lovers will have flocked to the museum to taste creative concoctions of ice cream, capture photos of the waffle-cone walls and splash in a full-size sprinkle pool. With one week to go, an additional 100,000 people remain on the waiting list to attend.

According to Forbes, this exhibit, located in the city’s Meatpacking District, stems from the creator’s childhood dream to offer an interactive ice cream experience in New York. Maryellis Bunn, the founder, told Forbes, that the “Museum of Ice Cream is all about our shared love of ice cream, summer and one another.”

A pop-up museum is a temporary exhibit that gains creativity from the people who visit and participate. Audra Kruse, IDFA communications specialist and lucky ticket holder, visited the museum last week, joining what has become a social media photo frenzy. The museum has already garnered 6,000 Instagram photos on both #MOIC and #museumoficecream, the museum’s chosen hashtags.

“Attendees were snapping photos at every turn, with phones, cameras and iPads in one hand and ice cream in the other,” said Kruse. “It was wonderful to see how enthralled people were with the spectacle of ice cream and how immediate their response was to post and share on social media. The joy and marvel of each exhibit read in big smiles on their faces.”

The museum is divided into four installations, each a deconstruction of the iconic ice cream cone.

Guests were greeted with a scoop of ice cream from McConnell's Fine Ice Creams, an IDFA member, before exploring the maze of rooms, including one with waffle-cone covered walls where twinkling cone lights hung from the ceiling and sugar helium balloons were blown into straws on request.

Sundae scoop stacks and screens of swirling chocolate sauce came next, leading up to the ultimate topping showstopper: a three-foot swimming pool filled with more than 10,000 pounds of plastic sprinkles. All visitors were encouraged to dive in and splash away.

After the homage to the ice cream cone was complete with sprinkles on top (and some in shoes, according to Kruse), the museum invited guests to let loose and play in an ice-cream themed playground that featured an oversized Neapolitan-sandwich swing and scoop see-saw.

Strawberry-swirled cones with lemon were served for a sweet museum conclusion.  

To see more photos, visit @dairyidfa on Facebook. For more information, contact Kruse at akruse@idfa.org.

The Museum of Ice Cream can be found online at museumoficecream.com, or on Instagram at @museumoficecream.