Entertainment

The two-minute hand-drawn portraits from NY Drawing Booth are a unique alternative to the standard photo booth. Artists mingle among the event crowd, sketching the fun party favors with an iPad and stylus. The shareable images can include custom branding as well as framing. On-site printing is also provided. NY Drawing Booth is available nationally; pricing is available upon request.

At the fifth annual fund-raiser held on June 19, mixologist Adam Seger created a specialty cocktail from an interactive bar called "Ice. Black. Life." that was inspired by the museum's current exhibition: Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997-2014. At the bottom of the bar, guests were encouraged to slap a wall of living herbs to release their natural flavors. Seger poured a mixture of various alcohols over ice at the top of the bar, and the liquid filtered down through black limes to become infused with dried fruit. The drinks were served to guests in martini glasses.

Guest of a Guest co-founder Rachelle Hruska MacPherson and interior designer Nathan Turner hosted an exclusive beachside dinner in Malibu on June 30, which was presented by Cointreau and Guest of a Guest. Held at a private house where the 1950s surf flick Gidget was filmed, guests including florist Eric Buterbaugh enjoyed Cointreau Rickey cocktails served from the orange liqueur brand's customized bar dubbed the "Cointreau-mosphere."

Airbnb partnered with SF Pride for a second year. The company's most notable pride presence was its mobile #HostWithPride pop-up, which traveled to various neighborhoods over a two-week period, encouraging residents to participate in D.I.Y. activities and a community art installation.

The Shedd Aquarium's annual gala on June 20 had a "Metamorphosis" theme inspired by the Chicago museum's current exhibit, "Amphibians." Event Creative designed a custom bar that featured glowing salamanders.

Toronto's 10-day Luminato Festival kicked off on June 18 at Hearn Generating Station with an opening party that combined the themes of nature and industry, which gave the event a post-apocalyptic feel. Lancôme Canada, the event's sponsor, offered makeup applications in a flower-filled dome.

Later in the evening, spotlights revealed burnt-out cars and trucks with plants spilling out of them.

At Philadelphia-based firm Brûlée Catering, executive pastry chef James Rodebaugh creates a summery spread called "Pastry Patio Picnic." The desserts array offers sweets shaped like classic American snacks, and items include "French fries" made of toasted pound cake and "burgers" made with chocolate-ganache pound cake topped with sliced kiwi (meant to look like lettuce) and mango gelee that resembles cheese.

At the long-term pop-up Samsung Studio L.A., hosts Bill and Giuliana Rancic partnered with Top Chef's Marcel Vigneron to lead guests through a cooking experience. The chef used Samsung appliances in the pop-up kitchen for the cooking demo, and attendees followed along using appliances at their own long tables arranged classroom-style.

As guests arrived at Samsung's event, they borrowed Galaxy S6 devices for the evening, which they could use to capture photos of themselves in action. Then staff prepared and sent guests home with customized cookbooks using snaps from their experience on the same night and featuring the recipes they helped make.

On July 9, Chad Hudson Events produced Fandango's first Comic-Con event at the new Omnia Nightclub; in recent years, Fandango parterned with studios to co-host parties, but this year held its own event. The NBC Universal-owned movie-ticketing service brought the band Best Coast for a live performance on the roof of the venue, marking what was also the three-month-old club’s first party associated with the convention. 

Kentucky Fried Chicken brought three activations to Comic-Con that were centered on the brand's founder and mascot, Colonel Sanders. Through a partnership with Adult Swim, the brand brought seven life-size Wi-Fi-enabled Colonel Sanders statues positioned around various intersections of the Gaslamp Quarter, each decked out in cosplay attire. When conferencegoers located the statues and connected to the network, they reached a co-branded Kentucky Fried Chicken and Robot Chicken digital hub for custom content. Costumed staffers were on hand to promote the brand and its comic campaign.

On New Year's Eve, Chicago-based artist collective and production company Canvas hosted a bash called "Voyager." Held at Moonlight Studios, the event was meant to evoke an otherworldly space, and the DJ booth was constructed out of glowing green materials that resembled moon rocks.

The splashy, upscale launch party for Plum Miami, a Miami-based luxury lifestyle magazine, took place in 2011 at Raleigh. The DJ booth was set on top of the pool's diving board, with water cascading down from it.

As part of a series of events celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami in 2011, the museum held its annual fund-raiser with a surf theme that turned up in such details as a DJ booth designed to look like a lifeguard tower.

For the Toronto International Film Festival’s opening-night party in 2012, producer Barbara Hershenhorn of Party Barbara Company surrounded the DJ booth in the main room with 18 TV screens looping a futuristic video.

At the preview of the Jason Wu for Target collection in 2012, DJ Harley Viera-Newton’s raised booth was surrounded by rose-filled window boxes to resemble a French balcony, part of the Parisian-street-scene set created by ExtraExtra in New York.

AOL hosted its first-ever Future Front on September 28 at Pier 36/Basketball City in New York. The event's focal installation was a three-story DJ tower that housed five DJs in cubes playing hip-hop, electronic, Top 40, rock, and throwback-style tunes. Built with scaffolding, the tower featured shifting light, music, and video styles and allowed DJs to play solo sets, participate in music battles, and combine genres. Four of the squares projected video that showed social feeds, DJ information, and live shots of the DJs performing. The event was produced by Barkley Kalpak Agency. 

At the Coachella festival in 2014, Forever 21 hosted its so-called “Party in the Sky,” where two cranes hoisted the event’s DJ booth into the air. The booth was made out of a shipping container painted in bright neon colors.

In April of 2014, American Express hosted an event at Home Studios Inc. in New York to promote its EveryDay card. The DJ booth was surrounded by groceries, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the lifestyle of the target audience for the new card.

At Miami's Scope art fair in December, VH1 sponsored a lounge to promote its upcoming hip-hop movie The Breaks. The film is set in New York City in the 1990s, so the look of the lounge included several references to the era and culture, including at the food stands.The DJ booth had a throwback look, with space for speakers and albums on shelves built into its façade. Viacom's special events team produced the event

Co-working space WeWork brought its series of warehouse parties to Miami for an event at Thompson Miami Beach, during Art Basel on December 3. Hosted with artists FriendsWithYou, the gathering had a “house party” theme. DJ DZA played a set of late 1990s, hip-hop, and old-school music at a pop-art Barbra Streisand DJ booth. The Workshop produced the event.

Luxury Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo ended its 100-days-long centennial celebration on December 8 with a Hollywood set that was built inside New York's Industria Superstudio. Produced by Bureau Betak, the event paid homage to Ferragamo's Hollywood heritage with various installations modeled after a film set. A custom DJ booth was inspired by the iconic Ferragamo rainbow wedge sandal that resides in the brand's museum in Florence, Italy.