On October 19, a launch party for the official partnership between Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Major League Baseball took place at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. The event offered personalized baseball caps as swag. DKC Incite produced the event.
The Sheraton event served hot dogs with an extensive array of toppings. Some of the more unusual options included fried garlic chips, braised short-rib chili, and wasabi. The event featured a hot dog cooking competition between chef Andrew Carmellini and all-star shortstop José Reyes.
Kehoe Designs handled decor for the 2013 gala for the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, Midwest region. The event honored Tom Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs, and had a baseball theme. At the cocktail reception, information about the institute was printed on a prop scoreboard above a food station. The station was decked with tufts of grass and baseballs.
Inspired by the ivy-covered outfield walls of Wrigley Field (home to the Chicago Cubs), the bar at the Weizmann Institute gala was decorated with ivy. There were also peanuts in the floral arrangements topping the bar.
For a 2010 social event in Chicago, Event Creative designed a table that was shaped like a ballpark's home plate.
The 30th annual Cubs Convention took over Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers in January. The event had plenty of games for families including "Cubs Family Feud" presented by MasterCard and "Cubs Bingo" presented by Budweiser. There was also an area plied with beanbag chairs and baseball-theme video games.
In 2011, Groupon took over Chicago's Wrigley Field for a Ferris Bueller's Day Off screening party with 8,500 guests. The film was broadcast on three inflatable screens, each 20 feet high by 30 feet wide. Staffers strapped water barrels to the bases of the screens to keep them weighted down on the windy day.
In New York, Scoozi Events hosted a dinner with a "childhood memory" theme in 2014. Nostalgic dishes included miniature Kobe hot dogs served in a baseball mitt with a side of tater tots in a batting helmet.
In 2012, Washingtonian Bride & Groom hosted a bridal showcase at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Guests dished up yogurt-covered raisins and apple-pie-flavored popcorn at the gourmet popcorn bar from Ridgewells.
In 2009, the American Bar Association hosted a welcome reception for its annual meeting at Chicago's Soldier Field. Baseballs and a replica of Wrigley Field's ivy-covered brick wall decorated a station serving hot dogs.
National cupcake chain Sprinkles can prepare frosted treats with any Major League Baseball team logo.
The 25th year of Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights opened on September 18, with group ticketing available for 20 or more. This year, the number of elaborate haunted houses increased to nine. Experiences include scenes from the Insidious film series, werewolves from An American Werewolf in London, and experiences inspired by the fifth season of AMC’s The Walking Dead. During the event, the streets of Universal Studios Florida are transformed into five unique zones filled with actors. The experience runs for 30 select nights through November 1.
A version of the event—similar in structure but with its own unique features—also returns to Universal Studios Hollywood on the same set of dates in Los Angeles.
Ten Thirty One Productions is back for the seventh year with its Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, bringing an experience known as Boogeyman to Griffith Park’s old abandoned zoo. This year features an entirely new ride and scare zones, including claustrophobic spaces, darkness, and creepy character interaction. A private wagon is available for as many as 30.
Brand new for this year, Ten Thirty One is also bringing a version of the experience to New York, with the New York Haunted Hayride at Randall’s Island. Both experiences kicked off on October 2. Ticketing is available for groups at both general admission and V.I.P. levels.
The national House of Torment brand has brought the concept to Chicago for the first time this year, with two attractions—known as the Abandoned and Contagium—in one location. In its inaugural year, the setup will employ about 150 people, including 75 actors. Special effects artists Evan Hedges and Kevon Ward from Syfy’s Face Off are among those behind the wild attractions, costumes, makeup, and animatronic effects. Several pricing options are available for groups of from 15 to more than 100. The House of Torment Chicago runs through November 7.
Escape Room L.A. launched two new rooms for the season. CreepLA, which launched October 9 and runs through Halloween, is an interactive experience for groups of six or more that takes over a haunted warehouse in the arts district. The second experience, known as the Theatre, launches on October 18: Guests enter through the stage door of an old haunted theater, where they have one hour to look for clues and attempt to get out. Group ticketing is available.
Queen of the Night is a multisensory surrealist dinner show that takes place at the Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel in New York. The interactive show, created by Randy Weiner of Sleep No More, includes performances along with food and drinks. For two Halloween incarnations on October 29 and 31, guests are encouraged to dress in costume to participate in a secret post-show experience with the executive pastry chef. (However, the creepy, fetish-like nature of the show gives it a Halloween vibe year-round.) Group ticketing is available; the venue seats 275 or holds 500 for receptions.
Skybar at Mondrian in Los Angeles will celebrate Halloween this year with Return to Gotham, a two-night event that will see digital projections wrap the exterior of the Sunset Strip hotel. Although the venue will have more of a party vibe, the space will be fully tricked out like a movie set and include experiential and immersive environments inspired by the fictional city of Gotham and its inhabitants. Theme areas will include Selina Kyle’s apartment, the Penguin’s lair (with actual falling snow), and the Joker’s playground. Various packages are available for groups of as many as 12.
The first-ever pop-up shop for men's clothing brand JackThreads will be open through November 12 at 43 Crosby Street in New York. The brand had its pop-up launch party on Wednesday, which featured a "listening wall" from artist Joshua Davis. The checker pattern projection changed to the beats provided by DJ duo Chances With Wolves.
Samsung created culinary experiences for this year's New York City Wine & Food Festival, which took place October 15 to 18. The centerpiece of the brand’s activation at the festival was the Samsung Lounge, an immersive space located at Pier 92. There, attendees enjoyed snacks and one-on-one chef demos, as well as learned about Samsung's new products.
Zohar Productions provided gold and ivory tents at an indoor wedding for Vanessa Williams, which took place July 4 in Buffalo, New York. The handcrafted, custom-made wedding tents were part of the event's Egyptian theme, which also included belly dancers and whirling dervishes.
The Spinal Cord Injury Ontario celebrated its 70th anniversary on October 15 with a gala at the Grand Luxe Event Boutique. The stage was the focus of the ballroom. "We wanted people to feel like they were at a cottage up in Muskoka in Ontario or in Flin Flan, Manitoba," said event manager Lynn Mineque. "We had a dock as an extension of the stage and had live trees and a man-made pond surrounding it." To the side of the dock was a 16-foot canoe, which was part of the live auction.
The evening also included a group singing of the the national anthem, "O Canada." A Mountie (a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), saluted the country's flag while guest sang and later mingled with guests.
A launch party for the official partnership between Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Major League Baseball took place October 19 at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. The event offered personalized baseball caps as swag. The event was produced by DKC Incite.
The Jim Beam Apple launch party took place October 20 at Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel in New York. The event's dark forest-theme design included a structure that resembled an apple tree, decorated with apple-shape cutouts of the whiskey brand's logo.
For his Spring 2016 show on October 6, Karl Lagerfeld transformed the Grand Palais into his very own Chanel airport. In a world where air travel is glamorous, a pristine state-of-the-art Chanel Airlines terminal greeted guests upon arrival—complete with a faux airport exterior.
For what would turn out to be his final show as creative director of Dior, Raf Simons, on October 2, turned the Louvre's palace courtyard into a fragrant blooming peak. Landscape artist Eric Chauvin spent 18 days culling enough delphinium blossoms and soil to create the biodynamic set for the Paris Fashion Week outing.
For its Spring 2016 show during Milan Fashion Week on September 23, Gucci's Alessandro Michele returned to the Scalo Farini, a former train station where the house had previously shown its Spring 2016 menswear line. The outdoor location was decorated with divans in patterns from the collection and an ornate snake-print carpet.
