The quad later served as the dance floor and viewing space for the live performances.Photo: Emil Cohen
NEW YORK—To celebrate the end of its Higher Education Challenge, as well as its 21st anniversary, Barry's Bootcamp hosted the Higher Education Graduation Party on November 16 at SIR Stage37 in New York.
(For the brand’s fitness challenge, which took place from October 17 to November 16, “old school” participants could choose to take 21 classes in 30 days or 11 classes in 30 days for “new school” status.)
Called the University of Barry’s, the event, which was designed and produced by Shiraz Creative and the agency's senior producer John O’Malley, featured a campus-style setting with a locker room, frat house, library, and quad, complete with a fabricated gate and stage.
“We were definitely inspired by Joey’s [Gonzalez, C.E.O. of Barry’s Bootcamp] collegiate experience and wanted to play into iconic imagery and memories of the collegiate experience. We drew inspiration from Harvard, retro and nostalgic sports, and of course, Barry’s iconic red rooms,” explained Stavros Tripi, vice president of brand experiences at Shiraz. This was the first time the creative agency had worked with Barry’s.
Staff were also outfitted in sports jerseys, fraternity shirts, cardigans, or just a towel for an authentic locker room experience. Further playing into the school theme, the evening was broken up into two entertainment sections: homecoming and graduation. For the graduation portion, singer Darren Criss was named valedictorian and performed a set featuring songs from 1998, the year Barry’s was founded.
More than 400 guests attended the ticketed event, which was open to the public but was targeted specifically for Barry’s members who participated in the Higher Education Challenge. A percentage of the revenue generated from ticket sales was donated to Michelle Obama’s nonprofit organization, Girls Opportunity Alliance.
VENDORS:
Additional Staffing: Staffed Inc.
Catering, Design, Production, Staging: Shiraz Creative
Choreography: Brian Beach
Cocktails: Cocktail Academy
Fabrication: Pink Sparrow
Lighting, Staging: Pulse Stage Lighting
Neon: Manhattan Neon
Printing: City Printing
Portrait Photography: Daniel Seung Lee
Rentals: RentQuest and Designer8
Sound: SIR
Venue: SIR Stage37
