How about an airplane in flight as a venue for an event? When Entourage returned from a yearlong hiatus, HBO needed a dramatic way to launch the fifth season of its flagship comedy. A typical screening and after-party didn’t seem to fit with the show’s expensive campaign and jet-set vibe, so the marketing team came up with the idea of an on-brand airplane. HBO approached Virgin America, which fit with the show's aesthetic. The airline was about to debut a new flight service between New York and Las Vegas, so the pair agreed to a joint promotion. The result included a private Virgin-hosted party inside a JFK airport hangar, photo ops with the show’s cast and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson, an in-flight premiere of the season opener, and an after-party at the Playboy Club in Las Vegas.
As part of the company's ongoing advertising campaign—centered on the phrase “In an Absolut World: Opportunities Always Pop Up”—Absolut Vodka commissioned artist Justin Broadbent to create an art installation in the Toronto Transit Commission's abandoned Lower Bay station in 2009. The end result was art exhibit by day and a party space by night. Kelly Kertz, senior brand manager with Absolut Canada, collaborated with a number of agencies to plan and execute the event. “The whole campaign is about the unexpected and really thinking outside the box. It's about everyone looking at the opportunities that are in front of them and also within,” Kertz said. “I don’t think anyone would ever expect that we would be able to do this in a subway station, to have an alcohol venue, but the T.T.C. has been fantastic to deal with.”
Forget abandoned subways: Bravo took over a working train station platform in 2007 to promote its Top Design show to New York commuters. Crowds of people on their way to work stopped to gawk at two living room vignettes conceptualized and furnished by designer Jonathan Adler at the 42nd Street shuttle terminal in Grand Central. The scene was up for a week, and organizers not only had to coat all items with fire-retardant spray but also secure the pieces to the floor.
When Fox premiered its new show Alcatraz in 2012, you might say there was one venue that stood out as the obvious choice: The network took its event to the San Francisco Bay, hosting a screening and party on Alcatraz Island. Fox's Karin Pofsky tapped Los Angeles-based YourBash! to head up production and design, with the goal to keep the mood as authentic as possible. Guests boarded a boat from Pier 33 in San Francisco to the island, where they were greeted by guards who treated them as prisoners; the guards wore costumes from Alcatraz's operating era and spoke to guests as if they were arriving as the prisoners did in 1963, the show's period setting. Attendees were then transported via golf cart up the hill to the main jail.
The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Florida began offering fetes in its walk-in freezer five years ago, and saw an increase in the offering's popularity during the heat of summer this year. “The freezer space allows us to execute some unique party themes like a fire-and-ice party featuring propane-fueled lanterns,” said food and beverage director Tony Porcellini. The space has also been used for Russian-theme events with vodka and caviar bars. To keep guests from getting too chilly in the freezer, which holds 60, staffers dole out parkas; they also adjust the temperature from 30 to 40 degrees and have parties spill over into adjacent spaces.
Los Angeles's Hollywood Forever Cemetery—yes, it's an actual cemetery with headstones and bodies under the ground—is an extremely conversation-starting home to many events each year. Showtime hosted a 2006 party for its TV lineup, which appropriately included Dead Like Me, in the space. Guests walked through a mausoleum into a velvet-draped grassy area behind it, where the party space was set up like a haunted garden.
Toronto architecture studio Raw Design had its annual industry party in 2011 at one of the oldest working bread factories in the city, which was soon to be demolished. Tapping into the pop-up party trend, Raw Rising took place in the parking lot, entrance, and loading dock of the Ontario Bread Company as the bakers worked to prepare the next day’s delivery orders. The historic location was an interesting choice for the design firm, as it was in then in the approval stages of planning the future site of a Raw Design 16-unit town house development. “It’s important to instill this memory in the designers, architects, and planners who are here. These are the people who are changing the face of Toronto,” said Kim Graham of Kim Graham & Associates, who produced the event. “We need to have them see and experience history before it’s gone.”
For those who work in construction, attending a party in a raw shell of a building is nothing extraordinary. (Celebratory gatherings known as topping-off parties, held when the top floor of a building is completed, are apparently quite common in the building business.) But one crowd's de rigueur is another's novelty. Such was the case at a 2007 cocktail party held on an open, upper floor of the New York condo development Riverhouse, co-hosted by Q Magazine. A mixed crowd of 400 downtown denizens and Upper East- and West-siders sipped Moët champagne and Belvedere Vodka cocktails overlooking the Hudson.
When an event takes over a piece of real estate currently listed on the market, you might say it's both a unique chance for event guests to see a space they've never seen before—as well as a chance for the property's agents to market it amid influencers. Such was the case when Variety and British Airways took over a $28.8 million mansion in September. The affair, meant to both fete the trade publication's “10 Brits to Watch” feature as well as the airline's nonstop service between Los Angeles and London Heathrow on the A380, took over the architecturally striking property in West Hollywood. Variety marketing managing director Kate Mazzuca oversaw the event, working with Joe Moller on the production.
During New York Fashion Week in 2008, Interview magazine hosted a relaunch at the Standard New York. Hundreds of guests filled the ground floor and the penthouse of the construction site—the hotel wasn't scheduled to open until the following year—for a surreal, red-dominated party.
Noah's Ark, an amusement park, restaurant, and event center, opened in July in Dordrecht, a city in the western region of the Netherlands. The venue was built to the dimensions of the biblical vessel and includes life-size animal sculptures, two amphitheaters, and a restaurant.
In the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi is the IceHotel, a space built every winter from a combination of ice and snow. Snow is sprayed on huge steel forms; once the snow is frozen, the forms are removed, leaving free-standing corridors of snow in which dividing walls are built to create rooms and suites. Hotel guests sleep in thermal bags, and the site also offers an ice bar and church.
Built in the shape of a beagle, the Dog Bark Park Inn is a bed-and-breakfast in Idaho owned by husband-and-wife team Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin. The canine-inspired accommodations, which sit inside a 30-foot-tall structure dubbed Sweet Willy, is big enough for four guests—plus their four-legged companions.
Jutting out from the jungle canopy of Costa Rica is a hotel suite built inside the fuselage of a 1965 Boeing 727 plane. Part of the Hotel Costa Verde, the two-bedroom, teak-paneled space has a cockpit as well as balconies on each wing and offers views of the neighboring Manuel Antonio National Park.
The Yellow Submarine hotel, a narrow boat renovated by businessman Alfie Bubbles, opened in Liverpool last year. The unusual tribute to the Beatles, the band's popular song, and the 1960s, is designed to look like a submarine on the outside and features psychedelic decor and furnishings inside. According to The Daily Mail, the three hotel rooms available on the boat come with 3-D TVs and Wi-Fi.
San Francisco tourist spot Alcatraz is apparently popular enough to spawn imitators. Based on the infamous island prison and perhaps the wackiest themed restaurant in Tokyo, Alcatraz E.R. offers a prison hospital theme, with jail cells, waitstaff dressed as nurses, and a menu of bizarre dishes designed to look like body parts.
CasaBubble, which rents transparent spheres for events, also works with hotels like Le Cottages du Parc in France. Envisioned by French designers Frédéric Richard and Pierre-Stéphane Dumas, the pressurized bubbles are designed to be used as lodging in outdoor environments and can include additional sections to house a bathroom or dining area.
The world's first Barbie-themed restaurant—at least, the first officially licensed by the iconic doll's parent company, Mattel—opened this year in Taiwan. Although the brand has created experiential versions of Barbie's Dreamhouse and Closet at events, Barbie Café in Taipei's shopping district is a permanent fixture, with tutu-inspired chairs, tables in the shape of stilettos, a color scheme of pink, and a full menu.
Lego is the theme of a 250-room hotel scheduled to open in April in Carlsbad, California. The venue, the first Legoland Hotel in the U.S., is geared toward families and evokes the brightly colored building blocks through decor and models. In the bedrooms are murals, furnishings, and fixtures designed after Lego's kingdom, pirate, and adventure collections.
Horror films and dungeons appear to be the main inspiration behind the prison-themed Lockup restaurant chain in Japan. Designed like a haunted house, the izakaya-style eatery comes complete with skeletons, mask-wearing staffers, and drinks in test tubes.
Getting to Kokopelli's Cave Bed and Breakfast requires a bit of a hike. Uniquely positioned in a man-made cave north of Farmington, New Mexico, the one-bedroom inn has its entrance in a cliff face, which is accessed via a short ladder. Inside, Southwestern-style furniture and decor contrast with the rough walls.
For animal lovers, Toyko is home to several bunny cafés, coffee shop-pet store hybrids that let patrons play with and feed the furry creatures. Usagi Cafe Ohisama, also known as Rabbit Sun Café, has bunny-themed decor and a separate play room for its 20 or so in-house rabbits.
Part of a movie set built in the 1940s for western films, Pappy & Harriett's Pioneertown Palace is an Old West-themed tavern and music venue in Joshua Tree. Inside, there's exposed brick, live music, and a menu of items barbecued on an outdoor, mesquite-burning grill.
