Draw Event Inspiration From These 10 Decked-Out DJ Booths

At AOL’s first-ever Future Front event in 2015, the brand strayed from its usual Programmatic Upfront event during Advertising Week and aimed to set itself apart from the competition. And it accomplished just that with a memorable focal installation: a three-story DJ tower, which housed five DJs in labeled booths corresponding to the genre of music being played—Hop Hop, Electronic, Top 40, Throwback, and Rock. Built with scaffolding, the tower featured shifting lights that drew attention to the DJ performing a solo set. Throughout the night, music battles and combined-genre sets also took place. The four Future Front-branded LED squares between the DJs projected social feeds, information about each disc jockey, and live shots of their performances. See more: How AOL Built Physical Experiences Around Mobile Messaging

In today’s digital age, it’s no surprise that DJs took center stage among 1,200 fireworks, 184 lasers, and 2,750 lights—virtually—for a New Year’s Eve celebration dubbed "Tomorrowland 31.12.2020." While clubs and concert venues were still closed due to the pandemic, to host the immersive virtual music festival, Tomorrowland built two large green-screen studios—one in Belgium and one in Los Angeles—to record artist performances. Major Lazer, David Guetta, Diplo, and Snoop Dogg’s DJ Snoopadelic (just to name a few) performed on a full-size DJ booth in a studio with nearly 20-foot high cycloramas. A total of 160 hours of footage was produced, which was later layered with show elements including lights, lasers, and other visuals. Come showtime in Tomorrowland’s digital entertainment venue NAOZ, more than 950,000 virtual attendees across 151 countries attended the NYE event and jammed out to sets from DJs on four different stage setups nodding to Tomorrowland’s past festivals. See more:
See Inside This Over-the-Top Virtual Music Festival That Drew 950,000 Attendees

Earlier this month at Amazon NewFronts 2022, the megabrand dazzled its high-profile guests with a night of programming that appealed to advertisers with an informative presentation and surprise-and-delight, entertaining moments. After taking over the 2,544-seat David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, attendees were ushered outside for an over-the-top after-party held around the performing arts center’s famed fountain. And naturally, because no post-business presentation celebration is complete without music, DJ D-NICE was on-site spinning tracks. Wearing a black fedora, the New York-native disc jockey performed behind an elevated, LED-lit booth designed with his name as guests mingled with light bites and cocktails in hand. See more: Amazon’s Invite-Only Event in NYC for Advertisers Combined Entertainment with Demos and Discussions

When luxury lifestyle magazine Plum Miami launched back in 2011, it hosted an upscale celebration for 1,200 guests at The Raleigh Miami Beach hotel. Organizers covered half the pool with clear Plexiglas, giving partygoers a place to dance as DJ Irie and DJ Freestyle set the mood from above, spinning tracks from atop the pool’s diving board. Water cascaded from the platform and behind the disc jockeys, a wall-sized screen played videos of the behind-the-scenes process of the making of Plum Miami’s April issue. See more: ‘Plum Miami’ Launch Party at the Raleigh Skips V.I.P. Areas

For a fundraising event in March 2021, Red Bull debuted its Skate Nash Stages, transforming the music venue Exit/In into a pop-up skatepark complete with half pipes, an outdoor skatepark, and—of course—a DJ. The DJ performed over the course of the three-day fundraising event in a booth branded with the energy drink’s logo. To accommodate the setup, the indoor iteration of the skatepark needed to be built right into the venue’s stage, sharing the space with the DJ for a unique synergy in the iconic club. All proceeds from Red Bull Skate Nash Stages supported independent music venues, including the Music Venue Alliance Nashville (MVAN). Josh Greene of Throwing Star Collective, the company that oversaw the buildout, said that “it was rewarding to put both DJs and skaters front and center in support of a great cause.” See more: See How Red Bull Tuned This Nashville Music Venue Into a Skatepark

Beautycon’s 2018 event at the Los Angeles Convention Center was an artfully branded bash—from a psychedelic-printed booth with male models painted to camouflage into the wall to a pink-lit, larger-than-life DJ booth in the shape of a neon boombox. The speakers boasted Beautycon LA logos in a playful nod to the event. And the setup rounded out two days of panel discussions led by Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, and Drew Barrymore (just to name a few), plus on-site makeovers, product giveaways, and interactive activities with yet another Instagram-worthy photo op. See more: 15 Ways Beautycon LA Helped Guests Get That Perfect Selfie

It was all fun and games at Coach’s inaugural external activation, a Coney Island-like fairground with branded Skee-Ball, a Zoltar fortune-telling machine, giant clown mask, and blue DJ booth decorated with carnival lights and the luxury brand’s familiar handbag clasp. Red and gold designs on the booth subtly incorporated Coach’s signature “C,” and an illuminated sign displaying the year the brand was founded hung above the DJ booth against a red-velvet curtain. Props, including a fire-eating photo op and carousel horse, also flanked the musical station in a fun nod to the activation’s fun-fair theme. See more: Coach’s First External Activation Invited Guests to Explore a Cosmic-Fueled Playground

In the summer of 2018, more than 75 influencers, models, and bloggers partied in caves and on yachts for an experiential marketing vacation with Revolve in Bermuda. The fashion retailer ditched its usual summer activation post in the Hamptons that year and looked to local full-service creative event and style production house Dasfete to curate every corner. In one of the most memorable moments, Dasfete transformed Grotto Bay Beach Resort’s cave spa into a nightclub for a #RevolveSummer-themed rendezvous. A DJ booth and dance floor anchored the space with neon signage, mini chandeliers, and candles, setting sexy mood lighting in the cavernous room. See more: Inside Revolve’s Experiential Marketing Vacation for Influencers

As an annual music festival that’s become known for its curated, Insta-worthy moments, it’s no wonder Coachella was one of the early adopters of dazzling DJ booths. Take Forever 21’s “Party in the Sky” setup. In 2014, the Los Angeles-based fast-fashion retailer brought two enormous cranes to Palm Springs to hoist its brightly colored shipping-container-turned-DJ-booth into the air. In an added branding effort, a truss above was marked with the event host’s name in pink. See more: Coachella Party Pictures: Innovative Ideas From the Biggest Bashes

In June of 2018, FX’s then-newest series Pose celebrated its release with an over-the-top event at Harlem Parish—a former church-turned-cultural center. Pose’s event nodded to the series as a tribute to the queer ballroom world of New York in the 1980s in a number of ways—from one bar decked out in gold mannequin heads wearing brightly colored wigs to another neon library-themed bar, a makeup vanity station and, of course, the DJ booth. Paying homage to voguing, a dance that originated in the queer ball community, the sparkling black booth boasted “Vogue” in large purple lettering and was backed by vintage TV props displaying the show’s name. See more: Strike a Pose: How FX Threw an Authentic 1980s Queer Ball