Want to Party? You Might Need a ‘Vaccine Passport.’

You could hear the music from the sidewalk, high-spirited renditions of “Ice Ice Baby” and “MMMBop.”

It was ’90s night at Rumi, a ballroom and event space in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, and millennials and Gen Zers lined up to get inside. They dressed the part in tracksuits, neon crop tops, denim overalls and scrunchies.

To enter, they had to pass two checkpoints. First, a bouncer verified IDs and took temperatures. Then, Joseph Ko, one of the ballroom’s owners, confirmed that each person had been fully vaccinated for Covid-19. The process took about five minutes.

The crowd seemed happy, eager even, to comply. Some flashed their paper vaccination cards, protected in a plastic case or folded into their wallets. “I carry it around with me everywhere,” said Tom Allen, 25, a lawyer in Chelsea, pulling the card out from his passport. He was with eight friends who had been texting days earlier to make sure everyone had the proper documentation.