Melissa Hart, head bartender at Dbar at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, said festivalgoers should expect to see more classic cocktails—with social-media friendly twists.
"I'm talking about classic gin Gibsons with house-made pickled onions and Old Fashioneds with custom bitter blends or sours made with seasonally infused spirits. This not only gives bartenders the chance to showcase their skills, but the opportunity to highlight aspects of each ingredient and their importance in a well-balanced cocktail," she said. "I have created the cocktail, Rikyu's Harmony, which is an ode to Japan’s culture of contrasts. It is a modern-day interpretation of a whiskey sour—whiskey, lemon juice, syrup, and foam to mimic the egg white mouth-feel. Drinks that are complex in flavor but understandable to the average audience will be what wins the nominations for this 2018 fall season."
Nishan Nepulongoda, head mixologist at Italian restaurant Sofia, said cocktails incorporating bubbly will be prominent at festival events.
"At Sofia, one of our most popular drinks is our Colombina—a refreshing combination of gin, Aperol, grapefruit ginger honey cordial, lime juice, and prosecco. It is light and crisp, with the familiar bubble of prosecco that our clientele loves," said Nepulongoda. "Prosecco and champagne are a lot more common than we've seen in past years, but I think it remains the ultimate celebratory beverage, which is perfect for our city's festival. Whether celebs are in Toronto for their first time or returning for another year, I think a lot of bubbly-based cocktails will be sipped on at after-parties, on patios, and at V.I.P. dinners. It’s refreshing and fun, and guests can expect to see even more prosecco cocktails this fall."
Heather McDougall, head sommelier and general manager of Montecito Restaurant–one of TIFF's official hospitality partners—has partnered with festival sponsor Nespresso Canada to create two signature cocktails made with coffee, which will be served at film premiere parties.
"Coffee and cocktails? Yes, please," said McDougall. "One of my Nespresso TIFF Signature Cocktails combines Averna Amaro and Madeira to join dark chocolate for a modern twist on a classic pick-me-up."
"This year, I think the biggest push will be sustainability in both food and drink, meaning a larger focus on minimizing waste and using local ingredients," said Simon Ho, head bartender at Spirit of York Distillery, which uses locally-sourced spirits in all its cocktails. "A big way this can be done with a twist is by using seasonal vegetables like beets or pumpkin instead of fruits for fall-flavored cocktails."
The All That Jas cocktail features Spirit of York vodka, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, lemon grass, lemon juice, jasmine green tea, and strawberry Szechuan bitters.
The bartending team at the Thompson Toronto hotel noted that partygoers can expect complex flavor profiles and colorfully garnished cocktails. This year, the hotel will serve four cocktails inspired by films screening at the festival. For Steve McQueen's film Widows, the team created the What You Sow cocktail, which pairs ginger and lemon vodka with a shot of Guinness syrup.
To celebrate the National Park Service’s 102nd birthday on August 25, the National Park Foundation launched an audio experience in Seattle that let people listen to sounds from national parks across the country. The woodsy pop-up space was fabricated by the Taylor Group and consisted of a bark-covered structure, faux grass, and touches of nature. The pop-up was conceptualized by Grey.
With New York’s L Train shutting down in 2019, commuters—specifically Brooklynites—will have to find transportation alternatives. To create brand awareness and help commuters prepare for the shutdown, alcoholic seltzer brand SpikedSeltzer held a promotion Tuesday through Thursday in Williamsburg, where it handed out free branded bicycles to residents. The promotion took inspiration from the brand’s recently unveiled “Pour Some Out For The L” billboard, which was created by creative agency Bullish. The three-day promotion was conceived by 3PM, an in-house agency established for Anheuser-Busch InBev by Weber Shandwick in partnership with PMK-BNC and Axis.
The eighth annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival took place August 22 to 26 at Barker Hangar. At the festival’s Grand Tasting space, sponsor Lexus showcased a custom Lexus IS vehicle wrapped in 41,999 hand-applied, programmable LEDs that turned the car into a screen capable of broadcasting graphics and videos. The car, which was named “LIT IS,” was created as part of a partnership between the car brand and video streaming service Vevo to promote singer Dua Lipa’s music video "Be The One.” The installation could interact with sounds and people nearby using three modes: the attract mode, which featured a loop of colorful graphics; the Music Viz mode, which responded to music with LEDs syncing to songs; and the gesture mode, in which the motion of LED animations was controlled by users’s hand movements when they operated a gaming console.
The Lexus area also displayed a photo backdrop made with rolled up pieces of paper. The display was created by artist Corrie Sullivan of Corrie in Color, which specializes in prop styling and event installations. The colorful installation was inspired by ice cream flavors of Afters Ice Cream, a vendor that was inside the Lexus booth.
Lyft presented its vision for the brand’s future in the self-driving space with a panel discussion that took place August 22 at the Glasshouses in New York. The event’s signature Instagrammable moment was a futuristic self-driving car instillation designed by Snarkitecture. Created with a mixture of upholstery foam and wood, the installation was meant to reimagine a car interior by creating a monochromatic, topographic landscape that mirrored a cave. The "car" was backed by a wall depicting a starry sky above a desert.
Online fashion retailer Revolve partnered with the Bermuda Tourism Authority to hold a two-weeklong activation in Bermuda in July for influencers. Production company Dasfete and a local Bermudan carpentry crew constructed a pink-hued lifeguard tower that doubled as a DJ booth in less than four days. The Instagrammable tower was stationed on the beach at Rosewood Bermuda venue, and it was such a hit that the resort purchased it at the end of the event.
The inaugural Destination San Diego music festival, which formed through a partnership between Adidas and Journeys, took place August 11 at Horton Plaza Park. A highlight of the festival was a living mural. Visitors could contribute to it throughout the day by pushing one of a series of buttons. Depending on the color selected, a new stripe of paint was added.
Another interactive art installation involved linocut prints created with an actual steamroller. Starch Creative, which produced the festival, worked with its custom-build manufacturer Purpose Supply Co. to test the steamroller prints before debuting them to the public.
Warner Bros. partnered with the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles to launch an interactive, musical pop-up exhibit August 18 on the museum’s second floor. The pop-up, which runs through September 9, is designed to reimagine moments in animated shows and films. Eleven spaces include the Get Animated Records area, which resembles a record store and features vinyl artwork inspired by classic Warner Bros. characters. Movement Strategy produced the pop-up.
The 25th annual Watermill Center Benefit took place July 28 in Water Mill, Long Island. The event, titled “Time Bomb,” welcomed more than 1,000 guests. Jörg Brinkmann's "The Broad Gave Me My Face But I Can Pick Up My Own Nose" featured three performers clad in neon bodysuits hoisting MacBooks that displayed alternating famous faces such as Sir Elton John, Mr. T, and President Donald Trump, which were choreographed to their movements.
Food, travel, and lifestyle website Thrillist partnered with Club Getaway to hold its first-ever Camp Thrillist, a weekend camping experience for young professionals August 17-19 in Kent, Connecticut. Chef Matt Marotto of Cryo Cream created Glampfire Sundaes, a liquid nitrogen sundae consisting of graham cracker ice cream, toasted marshmallow, home-made graham crackers, Pop Rocks, and a chocolate syrup injector.
Juice and food brand Odwalla kicked off a nationwide VW van tour August 16 at the Park eatery and lounge in New York. The van, which was designed by IMG Live, pays homage to the brand’s origins of three musicians selling juices and smoothies from a VW van in Santa Cruz, California, in 1980. The brand partnered with numerous health and wellness, food, art, and style experts for the promotional tour, which will take place through October. Future tour stops include Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Japanese beer company Asahi Super Dry took over P.S. Kitchen in New York to hold its first-ever U.S. pop-up bar August 15-17. The branded bar, which was produced by BMF Media Group, featured a virtual-reality tour of the Japanese beer brewery. The V.R. experience also had a virtual tour of the night sky of Tokyo.
HBO held an interactive pop-up exhibit inspired by the network’s new late-night series, Random Acts of Flyness, August 16-18 at the 477 Broadway space in New York. The exhibit, which was produced by Team Epiphany, featured vignettes inspired by the themes and cultural idioms featured in the series, which explores patriarchy, white supremacy, and sensuality through a stream-of-conscience style. The “Black Women Won’t Save Us All?” room recognized black women who have made history by broadcasting names on a screen. Attendees were invited to write the name of a black woman who has inspired them on two walls that flanked the screen.
One vignette recreated the bedroom set featured in a scene from the first episode, meant to showcase a visual representation of nontraditional black love. The bed was a popular photo op for guests.
The New Balance shoe line was displayed throughout, including in the video store area—the black tape from an oversize VHS tape was used to hold the product. Signage played off the old "Be Kind, Rewind" slogan, instead saying "Be Kind, Rewind to the '90s"—the name of the pop-up.
The second edition of Play with Fire, an all-day outdoor cooking event hosted by James Beard award-winning chef Zak Pelaccio, took place August 11 at Pelaccio’s Fish & Game Farm in Hudson, New York. Hudson Valley sculptor Kris Perry created a variety of cast-iron and steel grilling apparatuses for the event, one of which held Negro Piattoni’s “pollo al Chandelier.”
New Balance and Foot Locker partnered to promote the sneaker brand’s new X-90 Knit with a 1990s-theme pop-up at 939 Studio in Los Angeles from August 10 to 14. A colorful hallway was inspired by Nickelodeon’s Double Dare—complete with green slime and a giant nose that proved a popular spot for photo ops. The pop-up was produced by SPMDesign.
HBO and Bumble partnered to transform the brownstone Sousa House NYC into an interactive movie-viewing experience August 15 and 16. The branded space featured installations including a bathtub filled with yellow candy, surrounded by rubber ducks and yellow balls inspired by emojis. The experience was produced by Mekanism and Giant Spoon.
Upon arrival, guests were assigned a film to watch after they took a short survey. At each film screening, servers handed guests cocktails inspired by that film. For Girls Trip, guests were given yellow cocktails in plastic daiquiri sip cups, inspired by cocktails that can be found on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, the setting of the 2017 comedy. Guests were also given branded headphones for the film.
The bar featured the event's theme of "Come Together," another nod to British culture.
Boomset N.F.C. Automation at Night Shift Antwerp
Submitted by Boomset
At Night Shift Antwerp 2017 in Belgium, event management software company Boomset updated the ways in which the event used N.F.C. technology. Through Boomset’s N.F.C. automated check-in, organizers were able to offer a unique guest experience, as well as streamline marketing efforts by better capturing attendee demographics and collecting relevant data. Use of the software ultimately saved planners time and made efficient use of budget and materials.
Welcome To Camp Ignite
Submitted by Destination South Meetings and Events
The second edition of Microsoft’s software conference took over Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park in September 2016. Event producer Destination South Meetings and Events worked with more than 40 vendors on the five-day event, which offered keynotes, labs, breakout sessions, and more for 15,000 developers, partners, tech experts, and customers. To allow attendees to unwind in a nostalgic environment, the conference created environments inspired by summer camp, including a “Camp Alpine” section with bungee jumping and rock walls, and a “Camp Southwest” area that featured decor such as cattle skulls, cacti, and illuminated tepees.
29Rooms
Submitted by Refinery29
The second iteration of 29Rooms, Refinery29’s interactive, Instagrammable playground, featured creative lighting elements in the curated spaces, including rainbow lighting inspired by the Pride movement and a fluid green-blue water treatment that mimicked a bottle of Perrier. The overall lighting design was intended to produce the ideal conditions for capturing an Instagram moment. The multi-day event took place in August 2016 in a warehouse in Brooklyn.
#OnlyOnRodeo Spring Floral Art Installation
Submitted by Agenc
Targeting millennial shoppers and luxury legacy consumers, the #OnlyOnRodeo spring floral art installation was erected as a photo op on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, in April. The concept, conceived and executed by Agenc, was part of a citywide campaign to evolve the image of Rodeo Drive and to increase foot traffic to the area. The visually stunning set was a hit on Instagram, earning more than 35 million impressions in a six-week period.
Hearst Digital Newfronts
Submitted by BMF Media
BMF Media produced Hearst’s Digital Newfront, which took place in May 2017 at Skylight Modern in New York. Designed to showcase the media company’s upcoming digital programming across the pillars of food, fashion, beauty, and men’s lifestyle, the event featured visually immersive areas with video content to create interactive moments for guests. The food area showed how-to videos related to current culinary trends, with screens built into set flats covered in food-theme wallpaper. Guests could then open small drawers below the screen that would refill with food featured in the videos for guests to eat.
Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive tapped experiential marketing firm AGENC to create a family-friendly event and photo ops for its second annual BOLD (“Beverly Hills Open Later Days”) campaign, which took place during weekend nights in August. The series featured a variety of Instagram-friendly displays, including 3-D chalk art that was placed throughout the streets of Beverly Hills to promote the campaign.
