Bucket List Lotteries
Free drawings for once-in-a-lifetime events
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9 Free Lotteries for Once-in-a-Lifetime Experiences

No joke, these little-known free lotteries can be your ticket to once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

By Byron Reese
  1. 1

    A seat at the Olympics

    The 2028 Games are in Los Angeles, and the way in is a free lottery — no purchase required to register, to enter, or to win. Five million people entered the first one. Register once and you are carried into every draw that follows, automatically.

    How to do it ↓
  2. 2

    A free bottle of Pappy Van Winkle

    The most sought-after bourbon in the world sells out instantly at huge prices in the aftermarket. They give away free bottles of the 12-year in a free lottery held once a year.

    How to do it ↓
  3. 3

    A seat at Saturday Night Live

    One email sent in August is how you enter this free lottery for free tickets. NBC never sells them, at any price. Miss the month and you wait a year.

    How to do it ↓
  4. 4

    The greatest show nature puts on

    Tens of thousands of fireflies flashing in unison at Elkmont, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For the eight nights it happens the place is closed to everybody but lottery winners — 120 carloads a night, drawn at random from as many as thirty thousand applications. The lottery is free.

    How to do it ↓
  5. 5

    The tomb of St Peter

    Beneath the basilica is St Peter’s grave, and it’s all but closed to the public. Only 250 people a day are allowed down, and there’s no ticket window — you write to the Ufficio Scavi with your dates and the names of everyone coming. Asking is free.

    How to do it ↓
  6. 6

    The Lost Kitchen, the hardest reservation in America

    Forty seats. One seating a night. Seventy thousand postcards arrive for them, and a postcard is the only way in — no phone, no website, no amount of money. The draw is free to enter.

    How to do it ↓
  7. 7

    A free trip to Antarctica

    The National Science Foundation flies writers and artists to Antarctica for four to ten weeks — McMurdo, the South Pole, Palmer Station or a research vessel — and covers the flights, the bunk and the food. You share quarters with the scientists and take your turn at the chores. No one can buy a berth.

    How to do it ↓
  8. 8

    The Hubble, pointed where you ask

    Anyone may ask for free time on the Hubble Space Telescope — any nationality, no university, no institution — with slots set aside for amateurs who hold no astronomy degree at all. It isn’t for sale. You write and ask.

    How to do it ↓
  9. 9

    Sunrise inside Newgrange

    Newgrange is a chamber in Ireland built five thousand two hundred years ago, older than Stonehenge and older than the pyramids. Its builders cut a slot above the door so that for a few minutes after sunrise around the winter solstice, light travels sixty-two feet down the passage and onto the chamber floor. It happens on five mornings, December 19th to 23rd, and there’s only room for a few dozen people. They’re chosen from sixteen thousand entries in a free lottery, and schoolchildren draw the names. No seat is sold at any price.

    How to do it ↓

Never miss one

We track every deadline on this list and hundreds more, and email you the day one opens. Free.

The lotteries are free and always will be. We’d never charge you for a chance somebody else is giving away.
How to do it

Everything you need, and where the rules live

All of this is public information, published by the people running the draws. We’re not hiding any of it. What we sell is the calendar — and, where the entry goes by mail, the paperwork ready for your signature.

1A seat at the Olympics

Do it yourselfCreate a free profile on the LA28 ticketing site. Registering is what enters you in the draw, and LA28 state plainly that no purchase or payment is required to register, to enter, or to win. If you are selected you are given a time window in which to buy available sessions. Registration closes ahead of each release, and here is the part worth knowing: if you register and are not picked, you are carried into all future draws without having to register again. Rules: la28.org
If you subscribeWe email you the moment registration opens for each new release, and again before it closes. The account has to be yours.

2A free bottle of Pappy Van Winkle

Do it yourselfPappy & Company, the Van Winkle family’s own shop, runs a free sweepstakes for about a week each March. No purchase, open to all fifty states and DC, 21 and over. Rules: pappyco.com
If you subscribeWe email you the morning it opens and again before it closes. The entry has to be in your own name.

3A seat at Saturday Night Live

Do it yourselfBetween 1 and 31 August — and only then — email SNLTICKETS@NBCUNI.COM with your first and last name and a line about why you’d like to be in the audience. One email per person; anything outside the month is discarded. 16 and over. Winners get two tickets for a date assigned at random. Rules: nbc.com
If you subscribeWe email you on 1 August with the wording ready to send, and remind you before the 31st. It has to come from your own address.

4The greatest show nature puts on

Do it yourselfThe lottery opens on Recreation.gov in late April and closes a few days later. A $1 application fee, and $29 for the vehicle pass if you win. 120 passes a night across eight nights, each covering one car with up to seven people. The park picks the nights based on predicted peak activity. Rules: recreation.gov · nps.gov
If you subscribeWe email you the morning the lottery opens. Recreation.gov needs an account in your name, so you click the final button.

5The tomb of St Peter

Do it yourselfWrite to the Ufficio Scavi months ahead with the dates you’ll be in Rome, how many people are coming, the names of every one of them, and your preferred language. Groups run twelve to fifteen, nobody under fifteen is admitted, and confirmation can take weeks. Rules: basilicasanpietro.va
If you subscribeWe write the request in the form the office expects, name list and all, and email it to you to send. This is the one people most often get wrong.

6The Lost Kitchen

Do it yourselfMail a postcard to The Lost Kitchen, 22 Mill St, Freedom, ME 04941, during the window that opens 1 April and runs about two weeks. Name, address, phone, email. Cards are drawn at random and winners are telephoned. Rules: findthelostkitchen.com
If you subscribeWe email you a printable card with your details already laid out and the address ready. You write something on the back — people send poems — and mail it.

7A free trip to Antarctica

Do it yourselfRead the Antarctic Artists and Writers solicitation and submit a proposal, historically due around 1 June. Open to US citizens and permanent residents. The NSF provides polar clothing, round-trip airfare from a US airport, onward travel to the ice, and room and board while there. You cover lodging at the embarkation point, incidentals and medical checks. Rules: nsf.gov
If you subscribeWe email you the solicitation the day it posts and count down the deadline. The proposal is yours to write — nobody can do that part for you.

8The Hubble, pointed where you ask

Do it yourselfRead the current Call for Proposals from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Any nationality and any affiliation may submit, and proposals are judged without regard to either. The amateur track is open to US residents holding no advanced astronomy degree. Rules: hst-docs.stsci.edu · stsci.edu
If you subscribeWe email you the Call the day it posts and flag the deadline. Same honest answer as Antarctica — the science is your own work.

9Sunrise inside Newgrange

Do it yourselfApply online before midnight Irish time on 30 September. Applicants must be over ten, and under-eighteens have to be accompanied. Winners are assigned one morning between 19 and 23 December and may bring one guest. Rules: solsticelottery.ie
If you subscribeWe email you in early September with the link, and again before the 30th. The entry must be in your name.