When asked about our favorite season, we have to agree with Moira Rose—award season takes the cake. The Recording Academy's annual Grammy Awards especially are an event planner's ultimate playground, filled to the brim with clever ideas for event design, catering, entertainment, interactive sponsorships and so much more.
This year's 63rd Grammy Awards are taking place on Sunday, March 14, though the illustrious after-parties and all-out bashes from brands like Absolut, Instagram and Spotify will certainly be missed. Guess we'll just have to daydream about past events instead... So grab your best Champagne and keep scrolling for a splash of event inspiration from one of the biggest award show's most memorable soirees over the years.
The Recording Academy’s Grammy Celebration 2020
2020's celebration was inspired by North Africa; it featured Moorish architectural details and a Morocco-inspired menu. Decor evolved throughout the evening, explained Branden Chapman, executive in charge of production and chief business development officer of the Recording Academy, in a pre-event interview with BizBash. "We [started] with a more formal look and feel to the costuming and ambient performances inspired by the 1940s feel of Casablanca, then evolved into a more risqué nightlife as the evening progressed with more authentic present-day costumes and performers."
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
Instagram’s Grammy Luncheon 2020
Last year, Instagram threw a Grammys luncheon at Ysabel restaurant in West Hollywood. Celebrating women in music, the floral-heavy gathering was hosted by music industry executives Ethiopia Habtemariam, Sylvia Rhone and Jacqueline Saturn, plus Billboard editor Gail Mitchell. The event was produced by Crown & Conquer.
Photo: Anna Webber/Getty Images for Instagram/Facebook
Roc Nation's The Brunch 2020
Always a headline-grabbing event, entertainment agency Roc Nation’s annual brunch took place at a private estate. The design-forward gathering drew a who’s-who of the music industry, including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, 21 Savage, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna and more. So Events designed and produced the brunch, using a colorful palette featuring bold burgundies and subtle blushes inspired by Spain. Inside the main tent were three oversize floral chandeliers, with flowers from Celio’s Design. See more: Grammys 2020: What You Missed at the Week's Coolest Parties
Photo: Courtesy of So Events
The Recording Academy's Grammy Celebration 2019
The Recording Academy's official after-party took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2019, drawing 5,000 Grammy winners, nominees, industry executives and other celebrities. Designed and produced by the Recording Academy and Angel City Designs, the event took on a European, modern masquerade ball theme that evolved throughout the night. Eggs&Bacon handled additional production and logistics, while ShowPro handled lighting and video and Town & Country provided rentals. On-theme performers from E Plus Productions entertained the crowd, and ATK handled audio production. TLC and En Vogue also performed at the event, along with DJ Michelle Pesce and jazz singer Kurt Elling.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
Delta Air Lines' Pre-Grammy Party 2019
Delta Air Lines took over the Mondrian in West Hollywood for a pre-Grammy party designed and produced by MKG, who also designed a GIF booth where guests posed around an oversize Grammys gramophone; a wall of gold records provided the background.
Photo: Tyler Curtis
Steven Tyler's Grammy Awards Viewing Party 2019
For the rocker's 2019 viewing party, V Productions created a rock 'n' roll-inspired living room using Medieval-style chandeliers, plush furniture and bookshelves filled with personal photos. Never-before-released images of Tyler decorated whitewashed wooden planks.
Photo: Line 8 Photography. All rights reserved.
Mastercard Sensory Lab 2019
In 2019, Mastercard debuted its sensory lab at Fred Segal in West Hollywood. The interactive space, designed and produced by BMF, featured a fireside chat with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, a sneak peek at the brand's ad with Camila Cabello and a performance by rapper Kyle. The space debuted Mastercard's new audio branding, a lyric-free melody meant to resonate with customers around the world. See more: Grammys 2019: Event Design Highlights From Music's Biggest Week
Photo: Tory Stolper Photography
Absolut Lime and Spotify’s Pre-Grammy Party 2018
In 2018, Absolut Lime and Spotify teamed up for a pre-Grammy celebration that was held at the Public Hotel and featured a performance by Rita Ora in honor of the Open Mic Project, an initiative from Absolut that asks fans to share their stories of acceptance in an effort to create a more open world. The party, which was produced by creative agency MKG, featured dangling lime decor over the bar, along with a neon green Absolut "infinity bottle," a digital wheatpaste wall and a custom T-shirt distressing station.
Photo: Justin Bridges
Delta’s Pre-Grammy Party 2018
Delta Air Lines kicked off 2018's Grammy weekend with its annual party, also produced by creative agency MKG, at the Bowery Hotel. A fun, interactive element of the event was a giant LED wall that responded to guests’ movements and the music. See more: Grammy Awards 2018: 27 Can’t-Miss Moments and Ideas From This Year’s Parties
Photo: Chasi Annexy
The Recording Academy's Grammy Celebration 2017
At the Recording Academy’s official Grammy after-party in 2017, Angel City Designs' look was a modernist take on Shakespeare’s classic “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Keeping in line with the theme, a neon-green outline of the recognizable shape of an Absolut bottle served as an entrance into a platform bar area, designed and produced by MKG. See more: Grammy Awards 2017: The Most Eye-Catching Ideas From the Week's Biggest Parties
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
The Recording Academy's Grammy Celebration 2016
In 2016, in lieu of a more literal theme, The Grammy Land theme—inspired by Candy Land's fanciful concepts and graphics—was produced by the Recording Academy, led by Branden Chapman, Rex Supa, Clay Upton and Casey Immoor. The look and feel were all about whimsy and playfulness, with a dancing fountain, oversize candy props, vintage arcade games and other larger-than-life design elements in a space the size of three football fields. Pictured here, vintage pinball games were fanned out in an arcade section of the party space.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
A photo booth from sponsor McDonald's included a bed; the idea was to sell the restaurant's new breakfast-all-day offerings. See more: 2016 Grammys: See the Recording Academy's Candy Land-Inspired After-Party
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
Target's Live Grammys Concert Commercial 2015
In 2015, Target aired a live concert during a commercial break in the Grammy show, turning its ad buy into a four-minute performance by the Imagine Dragons live from Las Vegas’ Fremont Street. The setup included a circular stage with a 360-degree screen around the perimeter showcasing abstract visuals of the band.
Photo: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for Target
'ESSENCE' Black Women in Music Pre-Grammy Event 2015
Also that year, ESSENCE hosted its sixth annual Black Women in Music pre-Grammy event at Avalon Hollywood, honoring and featuring a performance by Jill Scott. The event, which celebrated important moments in the magazine's 45-year history, included hot pink roses and ranunculus presented in vessels made of cassette tapes for a vintage appeal. Colgate Optic White was a sponsor of the event, setting up a product station in front of a selfie-ready mirror decorated with a hashtag. Polaroids in the Colgate area were also meant to recall a sense of history. See more: 2015 Grammys: How History Inspired Events for Music's Big Night
Photo: PictureGroup
The Recording Academy's Grammy Celebration 2014
Angel City Designs executed the 2014 event's Roaring '20s design and decor, which included vintage cars placed throughout the venue. The vehicles sat within buffet setups from Along Came Mary, whose stations had themes like New York Italian, Chicago steak house, Atlantic City Boardwalk, Los Angeles Brown Derby and San Francisco Chinatown.
Photo: Courtesy of the Recording Academy®/Sean Twomey/2me Studios © 2014
Spotify's Pre-Grammy Event 2014
At a pre-Grammy party hosted by Spotify and AtomFactory with music exec Troy Carter, Stoelt Productions created a full projection mapping installation in Spotify's offices. Abstract imagery combined with sponsor logos displayed on a structure reminiscent of stacked boxes throughout the evening, apropos for an event intended to be about the convergence of technology and music.
Photo: Vero Image
'ESSENCE' Black Women in Music Pre-Grammy Event 2014
At ESSENCE's annual event in 2014, DNA Events helmed production and design, using a black-and-white chevron pattern to create a bold design look against golden tones. See more: 2014 Grammy Awards: See Photos From the Week's Biggest Parties
Photo: Line 8 Photography. All rights reserved.
