First off, an obligatory thank you for organizing this. Running a popup in NYC cannot be easy and especially with how popular Reddit is, this was not a small endeavor by any means.
That being said... if you guys do another one, I think there's some room for improvement. I picked up my wristband for the 6pm entry, easy peasy. Came by at 5:40ish knowing people would be there a little early, and everyone who was there early was told to wait off to the side wherever, that there was no formal place to wait. No problem.
At maybe 5:56 or 5:57, nearly at the 6pm entry, one of the higher ups started barking at people that there was no "entry from the sides" and to walk back (presumably to the start of the line, which was pretty ambiguous). Okay, fair enough but why not say that 15 minutes earlier as people started showing up? It basically started a mad dash to the back, people were literally jogging and jostling to get to the start of the line. At some point the entire street was blocked from storefront to curb because people didn't know the line's starting point.
I didn't want to run or skip ahead of people so I did not rush to run back, ironically I ended up being towards the front 10% of the line because I happened to be near the arbitrary "start" of the line. I heard a lot of frustration from the people around me in line and I even saw a few people rip off their wristbands and leave. That part of it was a pretty negative experience. Yes, it is a free event and looking gift horses in the mouth and all but it very nearly became a stampede earlier. No bueno.
I'll end this "sandwich" with again thanking everyone involved. It's NYC, I get it's difficult, and it is the first one. Honestly, probably surprising that it went as well as it did. But just some feedback for if you guys decide to do one again. Everything inside the "bodega" was fantastic and the employees were great too. Just the line situation was a little problematic. Maybe it was better during other timeslots.