IMMERSIVE EVENTS
“ STORYTELLING IS THE BIGGEST FACTOR IN THE CREATION OF A REALLY STAND-OUT, TRULY IMMERSIVE, EVENT.” – LUKE MITCHELL
Understandably, Mitchell is a little frustrated by how loosely the term immersive is now being used to describe events of widely varying format and quality.
“ Immersive is being used all the time and to describe absolutely anything,” he says.“ Where the term stands up more is when visitors are taken into the depths of a story, which swims underneath everything, with real cohesive throughthemes and values embedded in them.”
Wake The Tiger
On the back of a successful crowdfunding campaign, Wake The Tiger was launched by the team behind Boomtown Fair in July 2022 at the festival’ s Bristol HQ. Described as an‘ amazement park’, the immersive experience initially covered 1,000 square meters and involved 15 rooms but on the back of strong ticket sales the attraction has since been doubled in size.
With an annual attendance of around 170,000, Wake The Tiger has proven a huge success, and plans are afoot to open a second park in another major UK city.
Wake The Tiger managing director Graham MacVoy say that when he sat down with Mitchell to formulate initial plans for the event experience, there was a reluctance to use the term immersive:“ When we first started we were against using the word immersive because it was so overused and its meaning had become so diluted, but ultimately we needed to use a term the general public would understand.
“ When a truly immersive event really works is when you create a real connection between the environment that ' s around you and your sensations and feelings. Boomtown creates that at a level beyond almost any other event because of the connection to the music and the storytelling is so engaging. Wake The Tiger is very different because we
Graham MacVoy
don ' t have the wow factor of the music, but we still take the storytelling, the engagement and the values, and try to connect with people through it. If you can achieve that, then you successfully create a truly immersive experience.”
Live Odyssey
London’ s Camden Town has long been synonymous with live music, having been deeply entwined with the emergence and evolution of scenes such as punk and indie music while being the home of artists such as Amy Winehouse. With the aim of celebrating the North London borough’ s long relationship with counterculture and music, new immersive experience Live Odyssey was opened there this month.
A live music experience spanning seven rooms, each representing a different musical era, Live Odyssey has been designed with the aim of immersing music fans in British music history – from the 1960s up to the present. Located in Camden Market at the top of steps where The Clash posed for the cover of their debut album in 1977, a key element of the immersive attraction is its Hologram Room featuring holographic performances by British artists. First to feature is The Libertines.
Live Odyssey also involves a live music room and bar, hologram‘ boxes’, rare live footage and photography from the UK music scene, along with heritage items relating to artists including David Bowie and John Lennon. Other key elements include a rotating collection of 3,500 original album and single cover artworks and live art installations.
Live Odyssey creative director Gary Prosser says the inspiration for the project came when he and its co-founder Rich Taylor drove past Madame Tussauds and saw a huge queue snaking down the road outside.“ We thought we should take that idea, make it about live music and gave it the justice it deserves by using our musical background and knowledge to create an experience that really typifies the British music experience over the last 60 years,” says Prosser. He says the aim was to create an experience that was both educational and immersive, and that leant on physical and technology-backed creative environments. Aside from Madame Tussauds, Prosser says other influences include the cult immersive theatrical experience series You Me Bum Bum Train.
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