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Natella Vaidman, Publisher
Club Free Time was born from the enthusiasm of a new New Yorker for her adopted city. Publisher Natella Vaidman was amazed at the incredible variety and quality of the City's free(!) entertainment and education offerings, and wanted to share her findings with others. It was started back in 1987 as a six-page monthly newsletter called 'Free Time'. The first issue was mailed out to 6 subscribers; yep - 6!
In that pre-Internet era it grew from 6 pages to 48 pages and from 6 subscribers to 3,500 subscribers. The membership growth was mostly the result of the word of mouth. www.clubfreetime.com went online in March of 2001.
We now have over 16,000 members who use our services day in, day out. All the reviews in our REVIEWS section are real notes from real people; none of those reviews have been solicited in any way or form.
Our website attracts people who have a zest for life and for New York culture. We all know that 'best things in life are free,' one can definitely apply it to New York's cultural life.
Club Free Time has been reffered to in numerous guidebooks about NYC, including 'Let's Go New York', 'The Newcomer's Handbook to NYC', and 'New York's Best Kept Secrets'. It has been the subject of a whole column in the New York Times Metro Matters as long ago as 12/21/1996 (still under the name of 'Free Time'), and then yet again appeared in The New York Times in 2008, Wall Street Journal featured Club Free Time it its 11/24/2016 article, and Crain's New York Business wrote about the site in 08/20/2017. It was featured as well on 'Good Morning New York' (FOX 5).
Club Free Time has also been mentioned in hundreds of articles across some of the biggest travel sites in the world, including Frommer's , Lonely Planet, JetBlue. The website Australian Traveller notes that 'Club freeTime is a brilliant resource for no-charge music concerts, film screenings, theatre productions and gallery exhibitions. It also offers free off-Broadway show tickets and extra secret free stuff to its members...'
We are still one of 'New York's Best Kept Secret': you will not see Club Free Time advertising itself anywhere; we rely on the word of mouth to grow. We are very gratefull to our members for spreading the word!