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Designing the Festival Experience

by Rebecka Gordan

This summer, the sounds of Swedish music festival Way Out West brought record numbers of visitors to Gothenburg's Slottskogen park, where a new installation added an unprecedented social experience.


Source: Jyllands-Posten

Festival organizers hired furniture designer Rasmus Malberts and landscape architects Felix Melin and Josefin Noren Almén to create a bright yellow installation called "hullaBOLLoo" out of plywood and 180 recycled box pallets.


Source: Felix Melin

Felix and Josefin build social environments at large scales with loosely orchestrated circulation. In the case of Way Out West, they sought to address the desire to socialize while experiencing a shared spectacle. "We wanted a place where you could interact, flirt and talk,” Josefin explains.


Source: Daniel Fried

The hullaBOLLoo consists of two intimate seating areas, a large ping-pong table, a crystal, a wooden sofa and a large pool of brightly colored balls with a slide. All materials are recycled, and perhaps the pool will find its way into a Gothenburg beer garden later this summer.


Source: Rebecka Gordan

The installation was a great hit, giving concertgoers something to explore, talk about and play with. If the producers of Way Out West are wise, they will let the designers try their hand at the entire area next year.

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