The 30th annual Beverly Hills Holiday Lighting Celebration took place November 20 on Rodeo Drive. Produced and designed by AGENC, the celebration featured interactive elements including a life-size plexi snow globe gift box. Passersby were encouraged to take a photo in the box and post to Instagram with the hashtag #onlyonrodeo. Decorations will be on display through January 3, 2017.
The Lab, which was presented by the Verge and Hewlett-Packard, was the focal point of the festival. Designed and curated by Meta.is, the structure housed seven interactive digital art exhibits.
At night, the structure's facade, which was produced by VolvoxLabs, lit up with colorful, projection-mapped ultra-high-definition videos of designs that continuously changed.
Inside the 70-foot dome was a 360-degree virtual reality theater that held as many as 400 people. The experience was visually produced by Invisible Light Network and Dirt Empire, and Antfood provided sound effects.
Brooklyn-based artist Zach Lieberman's Reflection Study exhibit allowed guests to create different formations projected onto a wall by moving shapes made out of plexiglass over a light box.
Giant Gestures, an exhibit from Brooklyn art duo Mountain Gods, offered festivalgoers a chance to play around with an oversize touch screen tablet by using giant foam hand props. The installation was meant to reinterpret how humans interact with technology.
A popular exhibit inside the Lab was the Infinite Wall created by Brooklyn-based artist Gabriel Pulecio. The interactive tunnel—created with mirrors, sounds, and lights—used motion sensors that responded to the guests who stepped inside.
Attendees could physically interact with Hyper Thread, a silk tent that featured seven silk hammocks. Created by Dave Rife and Gabe Liberti, the exhibit enabled festivalgoers to make new sounds by moving around in the hammocks.
Sponsor HP showcased an attendee-powered color wall inside the Lab. Using the brand's technology, the wall would change colors in time for a selfie taken with a laptop. The activation was produced by Infinity Marketing Team.
HP also showed off its technology in a separate lounge. The activation gave guests the chance to create custom temporary tattoos using Sprout by HP technology.
A collaboration between 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center, Mevent, and AST Studios, the subway-train projection paid homage to graffiti art's New York origins. Artists spray-painted graffiti on a green screen, which was translated onto the high-definition video wall.
The visually striking, LED-powered multimedia block featured changing videos of animated designs, music videos, and performances, based on fan interaction and festival sets. The structure featured Google Play's social media handle and hashtag.
The interior of the block featured a headphone jack wall. Attendees could plug headphones into the various jacks to listen to different songs from Google Play Music playlists, including one curated for the festival. If listeners hit a "winning" jack, they were taken up to the second-story roof to enjoy the festival view.
The block also featured live graffiti demonstrations.
American Express' two-story tent, built and designed by Momentum Worldwide, offered a mix of low-tech and high-tech experiences, including a 360-degree panoramic digital photo booth. The roof deck was open to card members and offered a view of the main stage, DJ sets, and custom cocktails.
A popular low-tech experience for festivalgoers was a customizable sunglasses station, located on the first and second floors.
Macy's partnered with LeadDog Marketing Group to produce the Macy's Oasis, which gave festivalgoers a chance to relax with lounge furniture and a charging station. Along with bandanas soaked in ice water, the lounge had a string art wall created by attendees.
The official beauty sponsor of the festival, Sephora partnered with Revolution Marketing to host a tent that gave festivalgoers a chance to test out a variety of products, including face masks and lip balms. Along with a beauty bar, braid bar, and dry shampoo styling station, the tent had a photo booth with makeup props and a makeup palette backdrop.
Antioxidant infusion beverage brand Bai partnered with Relevant to produce the the lounge, which offered drinks and cocktails, a phone-charging station, and a photo station featuring a LightBright wall created with Bai bottles. Bai also had a custom Snapchat geofilter for the festival.
Northeast D.C.'s Union Market district broke ground on a new Latin marketplace concept from chef Jose Garces on June 13. Putting a unique spin on a traditional groundbreaking, Union Market's From the Ground Up initiative enlisted local artists, sculptors, restaurateurs, and international painters to decorate a number of ceremonial shovels for the event. The shovels were accompanied by paintings of Union Market by artist Brooke Bronner.
The seventh annual Amfar Inspiration Gala New York took place June 9 at Skylight at Moynihan Station. Sponsor Moët Hennessy brought an on-site champagne vending machine to the event.
Luxe Linen and Rayce PR hosted the Luxe Launch showcase at Vibiana in Los Angeles in May. The "Hibiscus Glitz" table—designed by A Good Affair, Little Hill Floral Designs, and Dish Wish—provided whimsical rentals that included plates with sayings like "Holy shiitake" and "It takes two to mango."
The Hospital for Sick Children's 15th annual Scrubs in the City benefit took place June 2 at Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto. Going along with the "London Calling" theme, the event had a selfie station that included an English garden rose wall and tea set built by sponsor Caspar Hayden Design.
The event also featured a larger-than-life pool table that mimicked a game of soccer, one of England's top sports.
The 10th annual Google I/O took place May 18-20 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. Organizers gave the event a fun, festival-inspired vibe in numerous ways, including dividing the grounds into four zones by stacking shipping containers to create towers that designated each area. Colored smoke wafted from the towers at night.
What organizers dubbed "art cars" were decorative elements during the day that became stages for musical performances at night.
The sixth annual Governors Ball music festival took place June 3-4 at Randall's Island in New York. MAC Presents created the Miller Lite Beer Hall, an interactive fan experience that paid homage to the brand's start in Milwaukee in 1855. The activation included wooden fixtures, beer barrels, and gun-metal enclosures, as well as original artwork including a mural made out of Miller Lite cans.
The House of Extraordinaire by Perrier featured a clear tent structure that included a photo station, which imagined guests in a high-flying hot-air balloon.
Bacardi brought its Untameable House Party to the festival in the form of a two-story public space that included specialty cocktails, outdoor seating from Lux Lounge, and a 50-person indoor stage where surprise performances took place. Community Agency produced the activation, and Taylor Creative handled decor.
Tropicana celebrated its brand relaunch with a pop-up in Times Square from January 14 to 17. Produced by MKTG, the tented activation featured wooden orange-tree replicas with plastic oversize oranges that contained straws resembling those on the Tropicana juice bottle logo. The straws had inspirational messages with the activation's hashtag.
The event had an aquatic-theme ball pit with bumble bee inflatables and a costumed bear entertainer.
MKG produced Absolut's on- and off-site activations at Coachella this year, celebrating the liquor brand's latest Abosolut Lime flavor. The vibrant green Absolut Limelight tent included an interactive dance floor, a lush lime tree, and a lot of glowing neon signage.
Perrier celebrated its many flavors—including the new strawberry and watermelon varieties—with a weeklong pop-up experience that came to an event space in New York’s SoHo neighborhood from July 12 to 16. The event featured a branded bubble ball pit in the Perrier colors, as well as props that included fruit-theme pool floats such as watermelons, strawberries, and oranges. The event was produced in partnership with experiential marketing agency the Michael Alan Group.Â
