Coachella, which took place April 10 to 12 and 17 to 19 in Indio, California, offered festivalgoers numerous health and wellness events to attend, including the Nylon Recovery Brunch. The event offered outdoor yoga, as well as other activities meant to help guests recuperate after the weekend.
Sparrows Lodge in Palm Springs was the location of Retreat, a wellness-minded, relaxation-focused event produced by Jeff Consoletti or JJ-LA and tour and event producer Tanya Slater. Taylor & Taylor was behind the production design, which included a silk patchwork canopy, Persian rugs, and kilim pillows. The event also offered free massages.
This year's South by Southwest Interactive, part of SXSW, which took place March 13 to 17 in Austin, Texas, had a Pursuit of Equinox cycling class at the Fast Company Grill at Cedar Door. Bikes pedaled by participants sent out data that was visualized on a screen.
For early risers, Spotify House held cycling classes by SoulCycle and dance classes, with a live DJ.
Many music festivals this year offered amenities to attendees that included beauty booths and necessary goods. Bud Light's traveling House of Whatever activation at Lollapalooza, which took place in Chicago's Grant Park from July 31 to August 2, had a "Tattoos and 'Dos" booth, which offered braiding, hair chalking, and other festival-inspired hairstyling services.
Whole Foods had a miniature market at Pitchfork Music Festival, which took place July 17 to 19 at Chicago's Union Park. The market offered fruits and snacks, as well as sunscreen, hair ties and bobby pins, and scented sprays. The station encouraged guests to take advantage of the free perks with a sign that read "Refresh yourself before you wreck yourself."
At a mini mart outside of a Soho House Chicago activation, guests could design their own parasols for portable shade during the festival.
Comedy Central's one-day Kegs and Eggs at Pelons & Bar offered attendees three key festival necessities: eggs, beer, and ponchos for that inevitable rainy day.
For attendees with dying phone batteries, Mophie had St. Bernards on hand with the brand's power reserve unit inside a barrel attached to the dogs' collars. Those in need of a charge took screenshots of their phone screen and location, and tweeted to the brand.
Off site but near festival grounds, Soho House Chicago teamed up with food website and mobile app the Infatuation to host an Ice Cream Social for festivalgoers on Friday. The event included a complimentary D.I.Y. sundae bar, where toppings inspired by the hotel's eateries included melon, basil, and bits of apple pie.
The Breakfast Sessions buffet was housed in the Red Bull Guest House at the Sagamore Hotel during the Winter Music Conference in Miami from March 24 to 28. Offered as a late-night snack, the buffet served munchies including Pop Tarts with dipping sauces, mac 'n' cheese, chicken-and-waffle sandwiches, and Twinkies.
Certain music festivals this year proved that going old-school can be the key to throwing an entertaining party. At the Essence Festival, which ran from July 2 to 5 in New Orleans, McDonald's threw a retro-theme community celebration, called the "Lovin' Skate Jam," which was designed by BPR and the Narrative Group. The fast-food chain's event offered roller skates and a skating rink for attendees, as well as a photo booth with '80s and '90s hip-hop-inspired props.
The Bootsy Bellows estate's party featured a colorful ball pit for adults, backed by the logo and slogan of sponsor McDonald's. The Narrative Group handled media, producing the party with support from ESE Lifestyle.
Brooklyn Brewery brought its traveling petting zoo, Tiny Tails to You, to the Grackle. One of the highlights was a tortoise race.
My Jewel Bar's table at the Retreat offered guests baubles that they could customize with festival-inspired charms and details.
In a V.I.P. area, guests could have their photos snapped inside the "Bud Light Lolla-Scope." The machine took rotating, 360-degree photos of guests, who then posted the images to their social media accounts. The images were automatically populated with the phrase: "And this happened at Lolla 2015," along with the #UpForWhatever hashtag.
HBO’s Silicon Valley brought Scheimpflüg’s Time Slice 360-degree photo booth to the Mashable House. Guests could email the images they took to themselves.
Not a fan being stuck in a wild crowd at the front of the stage? Festivals this year provided the opportunity to watch artists onstage in a less chaotic setting. At Samsung's Galaxy Experience and its Owner's Lounge, guests interacted with the Samsung Gear VR, a virtual-reality device that gave them an up-close view of the performances on the Samsung Galaxy stage.
Local beer company Goose Island made custom periscopes, set back from the main stages, that let guests peer at the festival crowds near the stages.
The Game of Thrones activation returned to SXSW Interactive for a third year from March 11 to 13. In addition to photo ops with set props and costume displays, the event allowed guests to have their faces appear in the "Hall of Faces"—a promotional element for the fantasy series' upcoming sixth season and part of a major storyline in the previous season. Visitors could take their photos on a tablet app, which then rendered the images and displayed them on a giant digital version of the hall.
HBO's effort also included a Realfiction Dreamoc holographic display case, which was designed to mimic another element of Game of Thrones—looking into flames to see the future—by showing a clip from the upcoming season.
The business magazine hosted its sixth annual event at Cedar Door from March 11 to 15. Sponsor Hewlett Packard Enterprise showcased various interactive experiences related to accelerating progress through data, including a light installation that gave guests an inside look at the company's distributing mesh computing technology.
Sponsor Delta brought its immersive social media experience, Social Soul, to the event. Using mirrored tiles, the activation allowed guests to find their "Social Soul Mate" by surrounding them with images and audio of their Twitter feed—and then transitioning to another attendee's Twitter feed. Participants could then hang photos of themselves taken inside on a growing art installation and interact with their matches in person.
Mobile accessory company Mophie returned to SXSW for a second year with its signature St. Bernards, which delivered chargers to attendees with dying phones. This year, as part of Mophie's new partnership with Indian Motorcycle, the dogs traveled on motorcycles from the activation's hub, "Bad to the Bone Bar."
Partnering with marketing agency MKTG, the sports drink took its newest innovation on the road with an interactive brand experience that gave guests the chance to make their own personalized Gatorade by creating a "sports fuel" pod that they could add to water.
First-time festival sponsor Bud Light transformed Brazos Hall into the Bud Light Factory from March 16 to 19. The music showcase featured 33 performances and debuted the brand's new can design. Attendees could win prizes at an interactive touch screen swag wall created by Float Hybrid Entertainment. The swag wall also served as a photo booth by featuring backdrops created by festivals artists, which guests could pose in front of and share their photos as animated GIFs on social media. Mosaic produced and designed the activation alongside Live Nation and Mediacom.
The factory featured an interactive wall with a massive interactive DJ controller that brought guests together to remix popular music live. The wall was also on display with a different illustration at the Austin Convention Center from March 11 to 19, as part of the Bud Light Uncharted Studio.
USA Network partnered with Civic Entertainment Group to bring its Golden Globe-winning psychological thriller Mr. Robot to life with a 100-foot version of the Coney Island Ferris wheel and arcade featured in the show. The experience was on display from March 11 to 14 in a Congress Avenue parking lot.
For the world premiere of AMC's supernatural drama-comedy Preacher, which is based on the comic book of the same name, the network brought the show's promotional imagery to SXSW with an upside-down church. The installation, produced by InCharge Entertainment Marketing, was on display March 11 to 15 on the corner of Red River and 4th Streets.
The consumer lawn and garden company showed off its new "smart yard" app Gro at Icenhauser's from March 11 to 13. The event showed guests how the app—which offers instructions on a variety of gardening practices—worked in miniature branded garden displays.
The brand's logo appeared throughout the venue, including on a wall as floral signage.
Aloft Hotels and Wired partnered to bring attendees two festival experiences: the Re:charge and RVIP Experience. From March 11 to 16, the lounge on East 6th Street provided festivalgoers with mobile charges, live acoustic performances, and breakfast tacos. At night, guests could hop on a custom hot pink RVIP bus for a karaoke experience on wheels.
The greeting card company partnered with ad agency MullenLowe and creative design agency Guild to give attendees a break from the endless digital experiences during the festival's interactive portion. The initiative encouraged guests to ditch their smartphones and get creative with old-school ways of communication. The three-day event transformed a 6th Street dive bar into a nostalgic space that evoked analog technology and featured a coloring wall made from more than 2,500 shredded greeting cards.
The experience featured vintage typewriters, vinyl records, and custom greeting cards that attendees could mail out using mailboxes, which were also part of the event's decor.
Virginia-based artist and designer Michael-Birch Pierce was on site to stitch guest selfies onto fabric cards.
An extension of SXSWi's food program, FYI network hosted its first culinary activation at the Driskill Hotel from March 12 to 14. Along with a "Quesoff" competition and a station that gave lessons on Instagramming food, the event featured an edible wall installation. Designed by food typographer Danielle Evans, the wall—which spelled out "Feed Your Imagination"—included local eats from Voodoo Doughnut, Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, and Whole Foods.
The Fader celebrated its 15th year in Austin by expanding its program to six days with two events: the music magazine's annual performance showcase presented by Converse and the all-new Arcade presented by Toyota Prius, which focused on innovators, artists, and brands that converge music, technology, comedy, and artistic creation. The event, which took place March 14 to 15, featured music performances, standup sets, and interviews, as well as original art pieces including emoji portraits created by rapper and online personality Yung Jake.
SXSWi sponsor Samsung had a large presence at this year's tech portion of the festival, with its first-ever Galaxy Life Fest music event and the Samsung Studio. The consumer hub allowed guests to purchase products, attend panels, and test out the brand's virtual reality experiences. The hub also featured the Samsung SmartThings Airstream pop-up, which invited visitors to view demos and interact with SmartThings products.
Earlier this month, Kodak Alaris launched a new app, Kodak Moments, which turns photos into visual stories by providing its users with options like appealing text, block quotes, and layouts. The company partnered with artist Marcos Lutyens to create a physical version of the app, the Memory Observatory, which was on display at the Austin Convention Center from March 12 to 15. The installation provided attendees with a multisensory experience that involved turning a photo into a story using color, smell, and sound.
Best Damn Brewing Company hosted its outdoor lounge at the Brazos Hall parking lot from March 11 to 15. The space offered attendees the chance to test out its new beer-drinker-approved office chairs, sample its root beer and cherry cola flavors, and try a root beer floats made with local Lick Honest Ice Creams. Outdoor games for guests included giant Jenga that featured branded blocks.
Festival sponsor Pandora hosted its fifth annual Discovery Den at the Gatsby from March 16 to 19. The event featured a diverse lineup of 39 performers and was live-streamed via sponsor FedEx's custom booth.
Event sponsor Scotts Miracle-Gro activated a tent that allowed guests to play games including life-size chess and watch the performances in a lawn-style setting.
For SXSWi, the online radio brought back its headquarters, Pandora Powerhouse, as a space for guests to play ping-pong, tour the Stoelt Productions-produced Connected Home, eat snacks, and drink music-streaming-theme cocktails.
Major festival sponsor Marriott Rewards partnered with Universal Music Group to turn the JW Marriott Austin into a concert venue for badge holders and rewards members, with concerts from artists like Ryan Adams and the Avett Brothers and events including the Universal StyldBy Gap poolside party. Artist Yoon Hyup—who created a hotel window illustration of Austin for the hotel takeover—created live mural paintings during the party.
The theme of the Mashable House was #BreakTheInternet. The venue featured a photo op where guests could climb into a giant replica of singer Katy Perry’s “liger” from this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
New to the IFC Fairgrounds this year was the giant human sticky wall. Participants donned velcro suits and tossed themselves against the tall sticky wall. The channel's activation was produced by LeadDog Marketing and ran during SXSW's music portion.
Hype Hotel switched venues to a bigger space at the Fair Market for its music showcase, which allowed sponsor Taco Bell to create a storage container restaurant in the outdoor space, complete with a taco storefront and patio.
At National Geographic’s interactive scavenger hunt game, participating teams entered a shed-like space and had to solve puzzles in order to escape the cold during SXSW Interactive.
Taking over the Gatsby, Pandora created a meeting-friendly connected home during SXSW Interactive. Produced by Stoelt Productions, the activation included five rooms featuring different devices, including iPad Air, Google Chromecast, and TiVo.
To teach attendees about the storied history of the vodka distillery, Ketel One designed a long history wall at its two-day event at the Fair Market during SXSW Interactive. Elements included fruits depicting the origin countries of the liquor’s three flavor profiles, interactive four points of quality testing, and a cocktail personality quiz. There was also a living green wall comprised of herbs typically used as cocktail garnishes.
Tumblr teamed up with artists to create projected installations for the musical showcases at the Tumblr IRL residency during the music portion of SXSW at Ironwood Hall. Different bands were paired with different artists, such as Twin Shadow with photographer Milan Zrnic.
To celebrate the launch of TV network Palladia's Instagram account at its music party at the Cedar Door, guests were able to use the event’s official hashtag to share photos through Crowd Reactive as well as print mailable postcards with the images. The event was produced by BMF Media.
Fader Fort hosted local Austin artists to create unique custom designs for guests wearing Converse shows during the music portion of the festival. The Fort also handed out 100 pairs of sneakers to random attendees.
During SXSW music, Neiman Marcus transformed a bungalow into an inspiration house where each room had an inspired-by theme. The music room featured hanging headphones playing music from presenting artists. Guests were invited to help fill out a pointillism mural in the art room.
Friskies took over Cafe Medici on Congress Avenue to create the Haus of Bacon for two days during SXSWi. The cat food brand teamed up with artist Jason Mecier to create portraits of famous Internet cats using bacon, cat kibbles, and Friskies’ packaging.
For more low-key fun, Brooklyn Brewery hosted Tiny Tails to You, a local traveling petting zoo, for a day at the Grackle. This included a petting zoo and tortoise races.
BuzzFeed's BFF Cluhouse featured an emoji fortune-teller for the day. By looking at guests’ most recently-used emoji on their smartphones, the fortune-teller picked the person’s fortune, including an emoticon to use more.
During SXSWi, 3M LifeLab was created using the company’s products, including Dichroic glass films, aluminum tubing, 3-D printed joints, and Scotchlite reflective fabric panels.
First-time sponsor McDonald’s created a comforting lounge with free food, Wi-Fi, and plenty of seating for attendees. The space was open throughout the musical portion of SXSW.
Fox created a food truck version of the convenience store from the cartoon The Simpsons, coordinated by Jordanah Events, and handed out free slushie drinks, or “Squishees,” to guests for two days during SXSWi.
The Pursuit of Equinox classes at the Fast Company Grill at the Cedar Door highlighted the newest cycling class centered on data tracking during SXSWi. In the class, bikes pedaled by participants sent out data that was visualized on a screen in front of the room. BMF Media produced the Fast Company Grill.
During mornings, the music-focused Spotify House held cycling classes by SoulCycle with a live DJ and simultaneous dance classes.
As part of the exploration on what makes barbecue delicious during SXSWi, Serious Eats hosted barbecue sauce workshops where participants were able to create their own flavors using a base sauce and additional condiments, which could be taken home in vials.
The Ipsos Girls’ Lounge made the trek out to SXSW, offering a female-friendly space for networking, panel discussions, exercise sessions, and more, during SXSWi.
Ponchos were dispensed to passersby and attendees of Comedy Central’s one-day Kegs and Eggs at Pelons & Bar during the music segment of SXSW, just in time for the rain.
As part of Dr. Martens’s Stand for Something campaign during SXSW music, the shoe brand let attendees complete the phrase “I Stand For” on free T-shirts.
Flood magazine, formerly known as Filter magazine, scaled back its music showcases at SXSW this year. The simple event featured big bands and artists like Spoon and Run the Jewels performing at the open-air space at Cedar Street Courtyard.
Animal Planet’s Next Cat Star Party featured hanging balls of yarn and giant cut-out cat cardboard figures for decor and photo booth props. The network also passed out promotional cat ear headbands to guests.
Patrón’s branded train parked at the Austin Amtrak station hosted several dinners and happy hours helmed by local chefs and bartenders throughout the festival. On March 18, Rolling Stone partnered with the tequila brand to screen a documentary about Austin-based musician Gary Clark Jr. Vases and planters from halved bottles of the tequila were scattered on tables. There was also the taste wall, where guests could try different types of tequila.
For the span of SXSWi, CoverGirl ran the makeup bar at Cosmopolitan’s lounge at the JW Marriott, giving free makeovers to guests.
HBO’s SXSWesteros house promoted the cable network's hit series Game of Thrones and featured an interactive sword-playing game where attendees used Bluetooth-enabled swords to hit targets on a screen. Before the activity, participants posed for photos that were then incorporated into the game.
Samsung housed the “Insurgent Shatter Reality” virtual reality experience. Using Samsung VR technology, guests could visit the realm from the Divergent film series.
A large interactive table at the center FX’s Fearless Factory showcased the television channel's mobile app. Smaller tablets were built within side tables, too.
At the premiere party for the CW’s iZombie hosted by BuzzFeed, Emotiv headsets were provided to guests who were able to see their brain activities in response to eating different types of 3-D-printed candy made on the premises. Guests were allowed to email themselves a copy of their scans.
At the fifth annual Fast Company Grill, sponsor Toyota unveiled an Oculus Rift distracted driving simulator. Participants donned the device and sat in the driver’s seat of a Toyota and replicated a drive through an active and noisy street.
Users entered the Bose Southbooth, covered in mirrors and disco balls, and chose a single song to add to the official Spotify SXSW playlist.
Boffin’s Lab featured a demonstration of Leap Motion headset technology, where guests were taken on a virtual reality through a forest.
The department store featured a Twitter mirror in the artist area at its Make Some Noise house. Users were able to take photos of themselves, add additional content like text and drawings, and then tweet out the image through the brand’s Twitter account.
At General Electric's BBQ Research Center, participants put on color-coded brainwave scanners to see how their brains reacted while eating different barbecue cuts and sides.
Yahoo showcased the brand’s digital magazine content through projections on a cube set up near the entrance of the venue during the daytime. For evening events like the Community and Sin City Saints parties, images from the shows were shown.
Mophie helped rescue attendees with dying phone batteries by sending out St. Bernards with a Mophie power reserve unit within a barrel attached to the dog’s collar. Those seeking help had to take a screenshot of their dying battery screen as well as their location, and tweet at the brand. The St. Bernards were housed at the MophieRescue Lodge, where the products were showcased. The organization also worked with the St. Bernard Rescue Foundation to raise awareness of adoptable St. Bernards across the country.
Extending its Made by You initiative, Converse photographed professional portaits of attendees’ sneakers in the style of the ad campaign. The images were then displayed on screens in the space. For those who weren’t wearing the brand, lucky guests were given free shoes at random.
The premiere party for Unfriended, which was screened at SXSW, featured live streams of the current event throughout the space, alongside a Twitter feed of the party’s hashtag, mimicking the film’s plot centered on live video chats.
HBO’s Silicon Valley returned to the Mashable House with several activations, including Scheimpflüg’s Time Slice 360-degree photo booth, the images from which guests could email to themselves.
