With judge Simon Cowell moving on from the show he made huge, this season's American Idol finale on Wednesday night was attached to some extra drama and emotion (or at least TV-montage-style emotion), if not extra ratings. To that end, the after-party following the final show itself carried a sense of bold largesse. Fox's Karin Pofsky tapped YourBash to produce the party at the Event Deck at L.A. Live, where a giant tent glowed blue for the show, network, and sponsors Ford and AT&T.
Outside, logo gobos decked the tent, and three giant, upright capital letters spelled out Fox. Inside, moving lights from Kinetic danced within oversize glittering chandeliers, and logos galore decked furniture groupings. Epicurean Events catered hearty dinner buffets, including salads and dishes with Mexican influences, and Customcandybuffetbars.com set up a popular dessert bar—with confections done mostly in blue—near the entrance.
Sponsor Coca-Cola, whose signature color dictated the tent's glowing red area, hosted bars, and brought a special computer that allowed guests (particularly the under-21 set) to customize their own drinks from more than 100 possible combinations of flavors owned by the brand.
At the back of the tent, an entire row of photo booths from Red Cheese helped meet demand for the activity, where guests lined up to have their mugs snapped and delivered in cardboard frames bearing Fox and American Idol branding.