Freeform's Nostalgic Cruel Summer Premiere Was a '90s Kid's Dream

To celebrate season 2 of the Jessica Biel-produced mystery series, the brand hosted a lakeside Y2K-inspired celebration—complete with throwback details, a New Year's Eve celebration, and even some beloved '90s stars.

Claire Hoffman

June 16, 2023

The event featured a number of fun details to evoke both the show's lakeside setting and its 1999-2000 time period. “The team dissected every frame of the first few episodes looking for those subtle nods to the time period that the show did so well,” Travis remembered. “Y2K has had such a resurgence recently, so it was a nice blend of what people see in pop culture right now and what people remember.”Photo: Courtesy of Disney
LOS ANGELES—You gotta hand it to Freeform. In recent years, the Disney-owned brand has hosted everything from "vertical screenings" to dinner parties inside moving trucks to a pop-up grocery mart with a choose-your-own-swag shopping experience. Its latest magic trick? Transporting guests to a different city—and a different decade—for the season 2 premiere of the teen mystery anthology Cruel Summer.

The May 31 event took over Elysian Park in Los Angeles, transforming it into season 2's lakeside town of Chatham, Wash. The premiere's 250 guests sat on a dock and watched the screening across a body of water before enjoying photo ops, throwback details, and even a New Year's Eve party to evoke the show's 1999-2000 time frame.

To Theresa Travis—Freeform’s executive director of marketing engagement and experiential—Cruel Summer is all about nostalgia. “The show has continuously pulled the time period forward with the music and the fashion, and we’ve been able to play with that in a really fun way,” she said of the event's inspiration. “We are always looking to stand out and not go the normal premiere route with all our series—but this one has really allowed us to dive into the rich storytelling and pull attendees into the world of Cruel Summer.”

Check out the list of vendors involved in the ambitious premiere, and keep scrolling for a detailed look inside the event and all its fun, retro details...

VENDORS
Production: Little Cinema
Social Media: Pop Social
PR: PR Dept
Venue: Elysian Park

To celebrate season 2 of teen anthology series Cruel Summer, Freeform transformed a park in Los Angeles into the show’s lakeside setting of Chatham, Wash. The red carpet, which had water- and dock-inspired elements, quickly set the tone for the May 31 gathering. “We knew right away that this screening also had to happen from across a body of water, and that was a prerequisite for finding the right location and designing everything around it,” explained Freeform's Theresa Travis.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

Attendees were seated on a dock as they enjoyed an across-the-water screening at “The Bloom"—a nod to a festival in the show that features bioluminescence in the water. The water at Elysian Park was dressed to replicate the lake from the series, complete with lights that evoked that bioluminescent bloom. “Grace E. Simons Lodge, where we hosted the event, had never done anything of this scale before,” noted Travis, adding that the team worked closely with the LA City Parks team and the fire marshal for all approvals.

But the space presented some unique challenges. “When we fell in love with the location, there wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit during the screening," she explained. "The solve for that was to build what looked like a 6-foot-tall dock over permanent cement picnic tables that lined one side of the water. No one knew what was under that massive build except us, and it was an elevated, literally and figuratively, viewing experience.”

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

The event featured a number of fun details to evoke both the show's lakeside setting and its 1999-2000 time period. “The team dissected every frame of the first few episodes looking for those subtle nods to the time period that the show did so well,” Travis remembered. “Y2K has had such a resurgence recently, so it was a nice blend of what people see in pop culture right now and what people remember.”

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

“We worked really closely with Little Cinema, our experiential agency, throwing ideas back and forth, from what music should be played to how to make our photo moments look like they were from 1999," she added. "For those of us who [are] old enough to remember that time period, the chance to look back at what we experienced and bring that to the event was wild."

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

A “Welcome to Chatham” sign also evoked the show’s setting. “Guests were able to send a real-life postcard to someone from their time at Chatham. The postcards were pre-stamped and could be mailed at our real mailbox placed next to the ‘Welcome to Chatham’ sign,” said Travis. “It’s always the tiny details that make an event great.”

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

Throughout the space, vintage TV sets played throwback music videos and news clips from the time period. “We made the event as socially shareable as possible, with six different photo moments captured on different mediums like Polaroid cameras, a classic photo strip photo booth, roaming videographers, and professionally filtered photos,” said Travis.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

Additional photo moments included an Airstream activation, where guests could take their own Polaroid photos to hang along the wall. The Airstream was decked out with posters and props from the Y2K time period.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

While lounging in the Airstream, guests could also grab a treat from Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which offered custom show-inspired flavors like “Y2K Sorbet” or the “Shoreliner Café.” The partnership with Van Leeuwen was also available at all LA locations June 5 and 6 to celebrate the Cruel Summer premiere.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

After the screening, an indoor, themed reception kept the nostalgia of Y2K flowing with music from 1999 and 2000. “We threw a Y2K New Year’s party with a countdown to the year 2000, where we gave the talent confetti cannons and everyone wore 'Happy New Year' hats,” explained Travis. “Imagine looking over and seeing everyone in their Y2K fashion with 2000 glasses (which we custom-made) and screaming the countdown to the year 2000. All of this was caught on video, which was made to look like old camcorder footage.”

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

To further incorporate the theme, celebrities who were well known from the era—including NSYNC’s Lance Bass (pictured), along with Matthew Lawrence, Tori Spelling, Mario Lopez, Tara Reid, and Beverley Mitchell—were invited to the event. “We always try to be as authentic to the series as we can be, and it felt so right to invite celebrities that were really having a moment during 1999,” said Travis.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

The '90s stars were also highlighted on vintage TVs throughout the space, including at an activation featuring PlayStation. “We found footage from movies, music videos, and TV shows that they were in," said Travis. "There was even an amazing clip of Lance Bass and Beverley Mitchell together on 7th Heaven! Our social team also brought throwback photos from 1999 for the celebrities to react to on the red carpet.”

Another fun touch? Inside the lodge, there was an interrogation room inspired directly by the series. “Our sheriff and his deputy acted out a mock interrogation for attendees to find out if they were considered a suspect or witness to a mystery similar to what plays out in the show," she explained.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney

Inside the lodge, the team also created the Shoreliner Café where main character Megan works in the show; it served cafe-style food like hamburgers, french fries, and fish and chips, along with custom cocktails themed to the series.

Photo: Courtesy of Disney