Music Festival Month: Firefly This is why Every Event Needs an Evacuation Plan
LIVE EVENTS
It s Music Festival Month on the Decibel blog, where we take a look at the highlights from this summer s best shindigs. The Firefly Music Festival in Delaware got off to a decent start this year, selling out for the first time ever, but took an operational hit or two as merrymaking was interrupted on the festival s third day by severe incoming thunderstorms, leaving festival organizers in the unenviable position of evacuating 90,000 people from the Dover Speedway grounds.
Yup, 90,000 people, a painful reminder that every event needs an emergency evacuation plan. The good news is that festival organizers at Red Frog handled the emergency with efficiency and aplomb, and though nobody was particularly excited to leave, no casualties were reported. The festival continued the following day, as planned. So how did they keep things together in a crappy situation?
Making the Announcement
The first task before festival organizers was getting the word out via channels likely to reach the highest number of attendees with all possible speed. Planners announced the closure both on the official Firefly Twitter stream and in person on the performance stages.
Directing Attendees Towards Escape Routes
Those routes should be clearly-marked and unobstructed, well-lit, and well-signed, with personnel directing evacuees and keeping the vibe calm. Ensure there s assistance on hand for people with disabilities who may be unable to exit the grounds themselves.
Liaise with Local Emergency Services
Appoint one member of the team responsible for keeping emergency services looped in to any developments on your end, and who will ensure that any official directives are followed.
Will the show restart?
Keep attendees notified if or when the show will restart. Organizers utilized social media to keep audiences informed of which shows would be rescheduled, which shows would be cancelled, and when the festival would restart.
Sorry you guys had to deal with nasty whether, but nice save!
Fantastic Buffet Layout Ideas from Around the Web
FOOD & CATERING
We ve been seeing a lot of catering pics recently, and with outdoor snacking season upon us, I realized we hadn t done a food post in a while. Or hey, maybe I m just hungry. Here are five inspiring buffet layout designs from smart and creative decorators around the internet.
Dangling in Mid-Air
There s something kinda Neverland about plucking your food out of the air, and definitely something whimsical about eating it off a swing. If you ve got some scaffolding to work with, you can create a gorgeous gardens-of-Babylon or country backyard feel, like this one from Elizabeth Anne Designs:
Rustic Piles
Three cheers for abundance psychology, that cornucopia effect that wipes away attendee inhibitions and encourages high-piled plates. Plus, something about a big ol mess speaks to the joyful anarchist within us all. Doesn t this pic by Inspired by Charm make you wanna break every diet you ve ever been on?
Or how about this gorgeous mess by Seven Layer Charlotte:
Chalkboard & Slate Labeling
Nothing goes quite as well with modern-vintage as scrawled-on-a-slate food labeling. I know, I know, it s trendy. But we re not sick of it yet. We snagged this pretty thing over at Brit + Co, in their nifty post about creative food stations:
Lifestyle blogger Ramsey nails it:
OCD Flat & Square
Gotta love hyper-organization, and all that food really pops on stark serving dishes. Here s a gem from Colin Cowie Weddings photo inspiration finder, an ultra Type-A table layout that does everything right:
A French country take on the same idea from Bright Bold Beautiful:
Food in a Cabinet
This idea from Austen & Carissa s wedding over on Wedding Chicks would be rough to pull off for anything large-scale unless you ve got the capability to fabricate your own furniture installations, but with a guest list under 500, this is gorgeous:
Same sitch with the Murphy Bar over at Thisoldhouse.com, a small-scale idea that would be fun to convert for a larger event. We re thinking several dozen of these, or a much bigger one:
Got buffet layout ideas? Tell us in the comments.
Event Theme Design Inspiration: Stained Glass
EVENT DESIGN
This week, we re inspired by the incorporation of stained glass into spacial and event designs. The design world went pretty single-color for a while there, but we re seeing (and loving) a lean back towards more vibrant, daring palettes. We ve collected a little mood board of beautiful images with inspiring prismatic decor.
Monumenta 2012
One of Paris most expansive art events, Monumenta is an annual exhibition that challenges artists to execute their vision on the grounds of the 145,000 square-foot Grand Palais. The chosen artist for 2012, Daniel Buren, created a gorgeous stained-glass landscape, reflecting the light of the building s dome skyward.
Tom Fruin s Stained Glass House (via Colossal)
Art blog Colossal featured this October, 2014 work by installation artist Tom Fruin, who created a plexiglass house as part of a performance installation under Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
Sugar House
A similar project to Fruin s was undertaken by artist William Lamson, who created a solarium using panels of melted sugar.
Standalone Window Backdrops
We don t do a ton of weddings around here, but this gem from Southerweddings.com is worth the deviation. We could see these standalone windows in use for both outdoor or indoor spaces.
The Glory Window
From Wikipedia: The most prominent and recognizable feature of Thanks-Giving Square [in Dallas, Texas] is the Chapel of Thanksgiving , a small, spiral tower that features an enclave for prayerful thanks. The entrance to the chapel is at the end of a 125-foot (38 m) bridge that runs over a cascading waterfall. Inside the chapel, the spiral is topped with stained glass Glory Window , one of largest horizontally mounted stained-glass pieces in the world. The window was designed by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France to feature brighter colors as the spiral reached its apex, becoming brighter as it reaches the center.
The Mirror Woman (pic via Buzzfeed)
From Juxtapoz: South Korean-born artist Kimsooja has had a long, intense career full of installations, performances, photography, videos and site-specific project. This particular installation from 2006 is at the Palace de Cristal in Madrid. Exploiting the structure of the building while also leaving it intact, Kimsooja installed a mirror on the floor to multiply and unify the original architectural space. A translucent diffraction grating film also covers the glazed dome and wall of the crystal palace. Awesome.
Music Festival Month: Underground and Sustainable at Gottwood 2015
LIVE EVENTS
It s Music Festival Month on the Decibel Blog, and today we re turning the lens on the boutique festival scene with a quick intro to Gottwood, one of the UK s most interesting summer events. The Gottwood festival is an intimate slice of hippy-sci-future held in the forests of Wales, a woodland rave that aims for maximum sustainability.
Gottwood 2015, now in its sixth year, ran from June 11-14, and true to their underground roots, accepted no corporate sponsorship. According to an interview with one of the three Gottwood founders in the London Evening Standard:
All seven stages and other festival outbuildings are made from materials found on site. Anything built by teams of local craftsmen will remain after the event so that it can be used by school groups or community projects, while money raised by the festival is invested in improving the area. No vehicles are allowed on site and organisers ask festival-goers to use car share schemes as much as possible. Ticket sales are kept low to 5,000 customers, plus 1,000 crew so as not to damage the site.
Here s a little overview from the organizers:
And a bit more of the vibe:
The festival is held on the Carreglwyd Estate grounds, on a wooded stretch of coastline that was named Lonely Planet s Greatest Region on Earth in 2012. The estate itself has a history stretching back 400 or so years.
Carreglwyd was built in 1634 by Dr William Griffiths. He was the Chancellor of St Asaph and Master of the Rolls to Charles the First. His grandfather, Sir William Griffiths had been the Rector of Llanfaethlu for 44 years. Charles the First gave Dr Griffiths one of the five Edward Bower copies of Van Dyke s portrait at the time of his trial. This portrait hangs in the Dining Room of Carreglwyd today.
The 2015 gallery hasn t hit stands yet, but keep an eye on the Gottwood gallery page for more stunning photos of the event, like this one from photographer Roo Lewis:
4 Truly Useful Associations Providing Services for Event Producers
EVENT INDUSTRY, TIPS & TRICKS
The event industry is a connected, supportive place where you don t have to go anything alone. These great groups specialize in creating industry-specific networks where event producers can share resources, trade insights, and stay inspired.
International Festivals & Event Association
You want the most bang for your membership buck? Look no further than the IFEA, whose membership benefits include workshops, yellow pages, market places, award ceremonies for best-in-class work, industry surveys and worldwide support for overseas events. Members are also eligible to drum up further cred by writing for IFEA s magazines and publications, distributed to industry professionals all across the globe.
Event Marketing Institute
It s not just you: everyone feels a little bit behind on their event marketing know-how, a state of affairs EMI aims to overthrow. Their membership benefits list is extensive, including exclusive access to industry analytics, marketing training, quarterly conference calls with an EMI analyst, and custom educational programs.
International Association of Speaker s Bureaus
You can t join the IASB unless you re part of the speaking industry specifically, but they do offer a membership search page where you can dig through association-approved speakers bureaus (in case you wanna find a local firm or vet your existing one). And in an uber-meta move, the IASB holds their own conferences. With speakers. That speak about about speakers.
National Association of Catering and Events
NACE takes a holistic approach to event management and catering with the tagline One industry. One association. True that where s there s people, there should be food. If you re looking for a catering pro to plug into your event or as a partner for your event production shop, do have a peek at the NACE s member directory. And if you re seeking inspiration and business connections for planning your next mega-banquet, NACE s Experience! Conference and Expo is a can t-miss.
Christmas Lighting Inspiration for A/V Nerds: Projection Mapping & Interactive LEDs
EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Got Christmas on the brain? We ve collected up a few of the coolest videos from this year s Christmas displays. We got yer home facade mapping, yer interactive lights, and some good ol traditional holiday light shows that ll blow your mind.
Houses in Serial
This home run by Brian McNamara from Gilbert, Arizona, synced up LED systems across six adjacent houses, and included its own radio station. Day-amn.
Sixty-eight neighbors half of them kids spread across 13 houses and started building the display Sept. 17, and finished it exactly one month later. ABC crews spent five days filming in Gilbert and relied on handy-cam footage to fill out the rest. The end result was a display consisting of more than 500 circuits, 110,000 lights, 285 strobe lights, and over 50,000 feet of wire. The roughly 10-minute display show is set to four songs, which visitors can listen to on 93.9 FM as they drive or walk through.
Interactive Facade Mapping Christmas Tree
Props, Mariachi Events and Palnoise, this tree is made from a list of Decibel s favorite keywords. On display this year in Dubai, the tree s program includes an automated program followed by a participatory segement. In other words, once the projection is done playing, guests can grab their iPads and decorate the tree themselves, adding leaves, snowflakes, and other virtual baubles.
SAKS Fifth Ave.
Nobody does class like SAKS. This display is up at Rockafeller Center in New York.
Melbourne Town Hall
Created by large-scale projection pros The Electric Canvas, the Melbourne Town Hall Christmas projections were in top form this year, following a city-wide initiative to sink some extra cash into the community Christmas spirit. The result was pretty rad.
O Light Divine
This one s actually from 2012, but it s cool enough to deserve a repeat. Designed by David Barshow, the interactive app-driven light display was up in Menlo Park, California. Visitors could install the O Light Divine app, adjust the light settings, and enjoy.
Let it Go
This monument to ice queens, created by the Larsen Family and made from around 1,000,000 LEDs, enjoyed a nod on ABC s Great Christmas Light Fight , and for good reason.
The Force Awakens
Not that we blame them, but someone in Pittsburgh was mad excited about Star Wars Episode 7.
Event Wrap-Up: The Archdiocese Gala
COMPANY NEWS, UNCATEGORIZED
Catholics the biggest party animals on the planet, amirite? We kid, we kid we kid because we love! In any case, as it so happens, the Archdiocese of Baltimore throws a pretty excellent shindig every fall a black tie gala to raise money for their schools and this year we were proud to be among the organizers.
Held on October 3, this year s gala was staged at Towson University s SECU Arena, which was transformed into an elegant dining hall decked in blues and purples, with gauzy white curtains and exquisite flower arrangements. In addition to a delicious dinner, guests were treated to an evening of student performances and alumni talks. As in past years, this month s event drew around 800 attendees, whose generous donations go to supporting Archdiocesan schools and raising funds for need-based scholarships.
All in all the evening went off without a hitch, and succeeded in raising funds for a good cause. It was our pleasure and pride to be involved in such a fantastic event. Thanks to The Classic Catering People, EventEQ and Select Event Group for their amazing work!
Check out pics from the event below:
Seasonal Event Design Inspiration: 10 Big Christmas Trees Made out of Weird Things
EVENT DESIGN
Sick of the same old fir needles and fairy lights year after year after pine-scented year? Yeah, neither are we. But some people are, so they decided to make:
1. This brainy Christmas tree made of books:
2. This Christmas tree made of lobster traps:
3. This Christmas tree made of packing pallets:
4. This Italian Christmas Tree made of glass:
5. This Christmas tree made out of a dress that s made out of a Christmas tree:
6. This Christmas tree made of bicycles that was built in a mall in Shenyang, China:
7. This geeky Christmas tree made out of Pacman:
8. This Christmas tree made of Jack Daniels whiskey barrels by the rad folks over at Scruffy Dog:
9. This handy Christmas tree made out of a ladder:
10. This zen Christmas tree that exists where the Christmas tree is not:
The Big Chill: Five Ways to Warm Up Your Outdoor Autumn Event
TIPS & TRICKS
Summer usually gets all the glory when it comes to outdoor events, but fall is no slouch either. After all, who doesn t love the changing leaves, crisp air and blazing blue skies of a beautiful autumn day? (Not to mention the hot toddies that follow once you get home.) The worry, of course, is how falling temperatures may affect your guests. Here are five ways to make the most of an outdoor fall event, and keep everyone cozy from head to toe.
Set up a tent
Tents are a good idea no matter what the season to protect against weather contingencies, but in the fall, they can also serve as a cozy retreat when the mercury drops. For the coldest days, ditch the canopies you d use in milder weather and arrange for heated tents with sidewalls secured at both the top and the bottom, as well as doors instead of wall openings. (If you still want a view of the foliage, make sure to get sidewalls with cathedral windows.) You can either get patio heaters or, for bigger tents, secure propane-powered console heaters, which can be installed outside the tent. Bonus points if you get some ceiling fans to keep the air circulating, and prevent warmth from pocketing around the top of the tent. (In the market? Check out our post on tent rental ideas.)
Keep the hot drinks flowing
Hot drinks don t just warm up your hands and belly according to studies, they make people feel friendlier and more cheerful. Channel some of that positive energy (and add a little seasonal flair) with big batches of warming drinks, like mulled wine, hot toddies or spiced apple cider. Be careful on truly cold days, though alcoholic drinks, contrary to conventional wisdom, have been found to lower body temperature, so they re not a great idea if guests don t have an indoor space in which to warm back up. For a less boozy option, go for some rich egg nog or hot chocolate.
Rent the right kind of heaters
For evenings that are nippy but don t require full-on shelter, your first line of defense should be outdoor heaters. So which kind should you get? While ceiling- and wall-mounted spot heaters offer concentrated heat and reduced clutter, their scope is limited. Instead, opt for a freestanding patio heater, which emits 360 degrees of heat in a diameter as far as 20 feet. Other perks? They re portable, which means you can move them around as needed, and they provide an instant meeting spot for folks to congregate around.
Wrap up tight
If there s one thing slankets have taught us, it s that blankets are no longer just for the indoors. While most people wouldn t dream of wearing one outside (to their detriment, we say!), slankets or just plain old blankets remain a great way of staying cozy when you most need it out in the elements. Keep your guests snuggly with fleece blankets that they can wrap up in when the weather turns nippy. Best of all, blankets can double as a kind dynamic accent for your decor, so make sure to buy or rent ones in warm colors with festive prints.
Go for a warm color scheme
Placebo effect or not, studies show that warm colors like red, orange and yellow can actually make people feel warmer not to mention more energized and (careful now) more hungry. Make the most of your fall backdrop by incorporating traditional fall colors and accents into your decor, increasing the event s festive atmosphere and subtly raising attendees internal temps.
Valentines, shmalentines: the World s 7 Least Romantic Event Venues
LOL, VENUES
Hey, don t give us that face. We don t have anything against romance. Romance is great. It s the chocolate sprinkles on the cupcake of life. But every other blog on earth has that one covered, so in preparation for that special day of the year when single event professionals eat grocery store sushi and ruminate on dying alone, here are seven libido-killing locations for your next event.
Costa Rica: Fuselage 727
Hey, I know. Why don t you throw a party in the body of a downed airliner that looks like it just finished doing an impression of your last relationship?
In fairness, Fuselage 727 wasn t built inside a crashed plane, it was restored from an out-of-use chassis that was dragged through miles of jungle, gutted, and refurbished into the unique monument to making your own fun that you see here today. Still, though.
This fully outfitted, meticulously detailed, two bedroom, Boeing 727 fuselage suite jets out from the jungle canopy, affording you views that will make you feel like you re flying. We salvaged this airframe from its San Jose airport-resting place. We carefully transported the pieces on five, big-rig trucks to the jungles of Manuel Antonio where they have been resurrected into a unique jumbo hotel suite.
Latvia: Karosta Prison
Housed in a real soviet naval port prison, Karosta Exuberant TripAdvisor guest reviews crow, Scary place! and Most awkward museum I ve ever been to . Venue staff can organize activities including an Escape from the USSR game, in which teams dress up like emaciated prisoners and scrabble to freedom through a series of dirt tunnels (no, really). Plus, catering s available:
In our authentic prison buffet we have warm pies and aromatic coffee, also rich hot food. And do not forget to try our special refreshments! You will be served by a real soviet-time buffet-lady.
Oh, man, special refreshements . Book it
New York: Ripley s Believe it or Not
18,000 square feed of shrunken head collections, cockroach attack simulations and albino giraffes. Ladies be goin crazy, amirite? Event planners can book either of two theaters, the largest with a max capacity of 150. Book it
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Once a poorly-managed house of horros, now an event planner s dream locale for cocktail parties and team building retreats.
Originally designed to house 250 patients in solitude, the hospital held 717 patients by 1880; 1,661 in 1938; over 1,800 in 1949; and, at its peak, 2,600 in the 1950s in overcrowded conditions. A 1938 report by a survey committee organized by a group of North American medical organizations found that the hospital housed epileptics, alcoholics, drug addicts and non-educable mental defectives among its population. A series of reports by The Charleston Gazette in 1949 found poor sanitation and insufficient furniture, lighting, and heating in much of the complex . By the 1980s, the hospital had a reduced population due to changes in the treatment of mental illness. Those patients that could not be controlled were often locked in cages.
The Ocean: Frying Pan Tower
Frying Pan Tower, formerly the U.S. Coastguard Frying Pan Light Station, is a lighthouse situated at the end of the Frying Pan Shoals, 32 miles south of Bald Head Island N.C. This is the southernmost end of the feared Graveyard of the Atlantic which stretches up to the northern end of the Outer Banks of N.C.
Tower organizers can arrange for guests to be flown in by helicopter or shipped in by boat, and can tailor your event to include team building activities like deep sea fishing or diving, skeet shooting and golfing contests with biodegradable targets and golf balls! Hey, man, nobody said these weren t cool. We just said no one s getting laid afterwards. Book it
Taiwan: Grand Hyatt Taipei
I envy the no-nonsense, fate-tempting practicality of whoever decided to build this place on a former World War II execution ground. According to Vogue
During its design phase, feng shui experts were hired to place sacred scrolls and various chimes throughout the lobby to ward off evil spirits. Rumor has it that actor Jackie Chan abruptly left the hotel after seeing a ghost.
Myrtle s Plantation
No. No burial grounds. Burial grounds are a guaranteed sexytime boner-killer. Thrillist reports:
This stately home is said to have been built on an ancient Native American burial ground, which pretty much never works out. And apparently 10 murders were committed within the hotel s walls since the 1700s, the most well-known of which was William Drew Winter, who was shot on the porch and managed to crawl up 17 stairs before dying. He can occasionally still be seen doing today, according to legend.