Inside the Stylish Weekend Celebrating Saturday Night Live’s 50th Anniversary
Emma Stone and Dave McCary at SNL50: The Anniversary Special at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, on February 16, 2025.
SNL’s 50th Anniversary
SNL’s 50th Anniversary – Inside the Stylish Weekend
Kenan Thompson is the first current cast member to arrive at the after-party celebrating the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Numerous former SNL stars, including Alec Baldwin, are already present at The Plaza, alongside major celebrities such as Bad Bunny, Chris Pine, and Lady Gaga. Thompson, who holds the record as the longest-serving cast member in the show’s history with 22 seasons, makes his entrance just after midnight, prepared to enjoy a well-deserved celebration following a weekend that began with a concert at Radio City on Friday night and culminated in the three-and-a-half-hour live broadcast of “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” at 30 Rock earlier that evening. He greets everyone with a warm smile.
Initially, one might assume he is fatigued. However, it becomes evident that Thompson is likely accustomed to such demands. Having participated in over 400 episodes, he has experienced this routine countless times. SNL after-parties have been a tradition almost as long as the show itself; since the 1970s, cast members, crew, and hosts have gathered at various venues following each live taping to either celebrate a successful show or unwind after a less favorable performance. In the early years, these gatherings often took place at John Belushi’s Blues Bar on Hudson Street, where notable figures like Keith Richards and James Taylor would join the late actor for impromptu jam sessions. As the show evolved from merely reflecting cultural trends to shaping them, so too did the scale and ambition of their after-parties.
In 1993, the New York tabloids erupted in excitement when Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Christy Turlington entered the restaurant Dish alongside Christian Slater, who had just completed his SNL performance that evening. Furthermore, during the 40th anniversary after-party of SNL in 2015, Prince took to the stage for an unplanned performance, followed by Taylor Swift. Rachel Dratch remarked to the New York Times in 2014, “It remains a cherished tradition; I have never missed a single party.”
The legendary drunken escapades that unfold at these gatherings are well-documented. Kristen Wiig revealed to Jimmy Fallon that she chipped a tooth at the after-party following her final show in 2012. At the same event, Jason Sudeikis found the courage to engage in impromptu karaoke with the Foo Fighters. Aidy Bryant admitted to having once blacked out and fallen asleep in the hallway of her apartment. Kate McKinnon recounted an incident where her hair became entangled in a button on Woody Harrelson’s sweater for a duration of 20 minutes, making it impossible to separate them. During the live special commemorating the 50th anniversary tonight, Adam Sandler shared a particularly amusing anecdote involving alcohol and a post-taping after-party in his original song “50 Years,” where he humorously referenced Steven Spielberg and Jaws during his time on the show: “50 years of writers seeing Spielberg at Lorne’s monitors/Not laughing at one of their sketches that he obviously hated/ 50 years of those same writers getting wasted at the after-party and loudly telling everybody that Jaws was overrated.”
Every individual I just mentioned is indeed present—without exception. Harrelson stands out with a tie-dye tie mysteriously autographed in Sharpie. When asked who signed it, he responds with a slightly tipsy smile, “Thanks.” Sandler, often meme-ified in basketball shorts and oversized polos, surprises in a perfectly tailored tuxedo. Ironically, the most “Sandler-esque” outfit belongs to Sudeikis, casually dressed in a hoodie and baseball cap.
The late-night crowd’s fashion choices are equally striking. Ego Nwodim stuns in a baby-blue Marc Jacobs dress (look 13 from the Fall 2024 collection), while Chloe Fineman opts for vintage Guy Laroche couture—fittingly from 1975, the year SNL debuted. Heidi Gardner sparkles in a sequined Sandy Liang minidress, complete with ballet flats and a tiara. Emma Stone, still in the custom Louis Vuitton dress with oversized, popcorn-filled pockets she wore on the show, now uses one pocket to stash her purse, freeing her hands to wave an Italian breadstick alongside Alana Haim, who soon starts air-drumming to the music. Sandler, passing by, joins in briefly.
The night is filled with such surreal moments. J.J. Abrams high-fives Keith Richards. Kim Kardashian listens intently to Bowen Yang at the bar. Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega pose together on the dance floor. In a nearby booth, Peter Dinklage lounges with Natasha Lyonne and Chris Rock. Lorne Michaels, SNL’s legendary creator, holds court in a backroom with Alec Baldwin. Olivia Munn and John Mulaney remain hand-in-hand throughout the evening. And while most of the party has shifted to the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom on the third floor, Steve Martin and Catherine O’Hara remain on a couch near the entrance, enjoying the spectacle from the sidelines.
Up on the third floor, a fully equipped stage—complete with amps, mics, and drums—has been sitting untouched for hours. There’s no official lineup, someone tells me. It’s more of an open invitation, a nod to the old Blues Bar days. And at 2:30 a.m., Arcade Fire took them up on it.
Back in the ’90s, as Saturday nights blurred into Sunday mornings, Ana Gasteyer often found herself staying out far too late at SNL after-parties. “Will Ferrell used to say, ‘Uh-oh, it’s the icky blue light,’” she recalls. “We’d look outside, realize the sun was up, and crawl home to bed.”
Now, as the band keeps playing and the Plaza’s ballroom grows even more packed, it’s clear that for many here, this will be one of those icky-blue-light nights. Let’s just hope that, unlike Bryant, they actually make it inside their apartment doors.
