WHAT WE’RE UP TO

It’s been such a thrill to see live experiences come back full-throttle. 2021 was all sea legs and feeling out the landscape, but this year has been all momentum and collaboration across the many disciplines we’re lucky enough to work in.

We’re counting down the days until our musical, KPOP, finally opens on Broadway (11/20/2022!!!). Gabriel is the Production Designer and both he and William have been shepherding its development as members of Woodshed Collective since 2014.

We kicked off the summer season with the riotous Titanique at the Asylum (formerly UCB Chelsea; we’re still in awe of how Gabriel transformed it). A huge thanks to our dear friends at Maximum Entertainment Productions for bringing us aboard.

Seeing all of our Festival partners come back better and stronger than ever has been a thrill:

• We returned to Electric Forest for the first time in three years to bring the Observatory to life once more.

• We rounded out our second year heading up Creative Direction at Outside Lands and couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. From the first day of load-in, through three wonderful days of shows, to the final cigar and champagne on a log in the dust as we watched our office trailer get towed away, it felt like one of the best years in a long time.

  • After 14 years of the iconic double windmill, we felt it was time to give the polo field a new beacon and were able to collaboratively design a new sculpture with our friends and partners at One Hat, One Hand. Emmie Finckel lead the conceptual design; David Weinerdavidweinerdesign.com/ came aboard to light the hell out of it (as he does the rest of the site); and Justin Billcheck’s team were integral in the installation — they make that entire site happen with verve and care.

  • For the second year running, Rob Ross and the Rob Ross Design team came aboard to blow minds with their exquisite and decadent design for the SOMA tent, an all-day house music oasis in Marx Meadow.

  • We continued to refine all of the stage creative, working with Ernie Ernstrom and Simon Lally on the Lands End lighting and video design, (continuing to build on and to celebrate Andi Watson’s original vision); Daniel Brodie on the wondrous video art for Twin Peaks; and our dear friend Margo Craige on the beautiful new Sutro scrims which tie the entire meadow together, seamlessly integrating with our abstract root screen surrounds, built by our friends at Figure Plant in Portland.

  • Step by step, inch by inch, we’re refining the festival, digging deeper into what makes it unique and finding ways — from the smallest sign to the biggest park ranger — to telegraph an aesthetic and narrative through-line to every fan and patron that sets foot in the park we’re lucky enough to call home.

  • If you set foot in Grass Lands this year, we hope you met Theodore “Teddy” Okey (…T.Okey the Bear).

We’re excited to add to our stable of festivals. Refining and deepening how we design a site is one of our focuses for 2023.

To round out the year, we’ve got a special scenic design cooking for Remi Wolf’s Gwingle Gwongle tour and are working with our old pals at Mott Fischer to bring This Beautiful Future back to NYC at the Cherry Lane.

We’ve been incredibly lucky to get to spend time on all of these projects and many more we’re not quite ready to talk about… Here’s to 2023!

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