A huge new immersive experience from the producers of Boomtown is heading to London
Absolutely absurd
Boomtown is a bit like a festival equivalent of onomatopoeia, with the whole Hampshire shindig popping off from start to finish with a boom, a bang, and a shedload of great music. Now, Wake the Tiger, the team behind the festival, is heading to London to unveil a new immersive experience in Stratford.
London is no stranger to an immersive experience, from adaptations of big hitting TV shows like Crystal Maze and Race Across the World to historical exhibitions which transport you back to Viking ages or the reign of Cleopatra. The latest arrival to the big smoke is called Absurd City, and it’s set to be Europe's largest immersive art experience. According to the creators, Absurd City is “a parallel world where the lines between art and storytelling blur”. The experience invites visitors to “travel through the portal, explore a vividly charged cityscape filled with surreal installations, hidden corners, and mind-bending visuals.” As for Absurd City itself? It's a domed metropolis in the parallel world of Meridia, obviously.
A bit like a Punchdrunk production, your journey through Absurd City is a self-guided one, so there’s no one prescribed story or route that you’ll do, meaning everyone could theoretically get a completely different experience. So you could just be strolling through the streets, hunting for secrets, or actively joining a covert resistance group known as The Wunderground and save the city. If the city needs saving that is. Maybe you’re one of the rebels uprising, not the saviour you were told you’d be. Basically, it’s a Black Mirror-esque equivalent of an immersive experience. Or is it…
Other than that, the group are being quite tight lipped on what the site will actually look like, and further details are thin on the ground – although that's not exactly surprising given the experience is all about mind bending realities. It sounds like it's more of a "you had to be there" kind of day out.
The alternate world will be located in Westfield London, so you can easily step from the real to the absurd without having to hop on a long tube to a disused shipyard or other suitably horror-film-esque setting.
As well as general admission, the organisers have both after hours, 18+ only sessions and Calm Sessions, specifically designed with SEND in mind, it allows people to explore the world in a slightly less chaotic and intense manner.
Absurd City takes over the whopping 80,000 square foot space that was formerly the home of KidZania, the interactive children’s play space. The creators have confirmed that there will be four different distinctive ‘districts’ that you’ll be able to explore, packed with secret passageways, statues, artwork, lighting, and plenty of storytelling.
Tickets are already on sale for the experience which opens up on 15th October. Tickets for general admission come with a £31.50 price tag which is about the same as a cheap theatre ticket. You can find out more about the experience and book tickets here.
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