The main stage designed by Charlotte Thurman who worked with the project’s art director Sofie Cruse. I think this photo does an excellent job conveying the stage set’s creative: bright, fun, desert colors, and completely stimulating.

We created an equation to think about experience which shows the value of stage sets:

[(number of people affected) * (level of stimulation) * (profoundness of experience)] / (cost) = value of experience

Knowing that resources are limited, it’s critical to optimize the value of experience for people. Given that a stage set can affect thousands of people at a time, we prioritized it. People have profound experiences listening to music, but our question was: can we affect people in different ways so that they value different experiences?

Festival experiences hinge on partnerships with other artists: the artists on stage, performers, and artists like Corinne Loperfido (pictured center) and her Pussy Power House.

Pussy Power House was important for us in multiple ways. When we conceived of this project we knew that we wanted it to feel distinct from other festivals. One way we wanted to achieve that was by making it feel female-centric.

Not many people could experience the Pussy Power House Pleasure Stack because it required multiple members of the PPH crew and only one person could be Pleasure Stacked at a time, but for those who did experience it, it achieved a profoundness other activations couldn’t.

On the top left of the image, we have the second stage dance tent and to its right is the main stage, which are focal points of the user experience, but what happens during changeovers, when there’s a gap in programming?

That lack of stimulation during the user journey at a festival we considered to be a pain point. We decided to solve for that pain point with performers who did synchronized dances and circus performances. These highly technical performances allowed the audience to revel in different rhythms that complemented each other. Our performance director, Amelia Stickney, was inspired by synchronized swimmers for her work.

The experience above is affecting the crowd, people who saw it on the Internet, and crucially the little girl at its center. We could argue the number of people affected is 1, but the profoundness of experience for this little girl is at the equation’s maximum. We hope she talks about this for the rest of her life or at least elementary school.

Fans aren’t just consumers! They’re participants and co-creators of the experience.

The Laser Harp Hut and interactive sculptures. These formed the backbone of our installed art environment along with steel structures people could stand on, which aren’t pictured here.

DiCapria’s ‘Gummy Bear Pyramid’ comprised of 200,000 hand-casted gummy bears. It’s impossible not to reflect upon it once you’re inside of it. To the right you can see her ‘7 Eyed Jaguar.’

Every project has to consider the ‘make or buy’ question. Our partners delivered amazing value to us through the pieces we rented from them.

Cashmere Cat playing inside the Dance Tent. Our internal team, led by Nate Gutierrez, designed this unique LED wall and created content for it.

There’s the scale of the stage and the scale of human performers. Gigantic, roving puppets from Colossal Collective served as the perfect in-between: giants you can interact with. Not only can they entertain hundreds or thousands of people, people can have profound individual experiences with them.

Circus! Humans pushing their bodies beyond what’s typical and creating a stimulating experience.

Our performance director, Amelia Stickney, who directed performers while performing herself.

Never discount the value of balloons.

It all comes together: our art, performers, our partner, Pussy Power House, and users experiencing it all.