Spirit Lake Hulaween 2024
CREATIVE DIRECTION // STAGE DESIGN // ART CURATION // ART DIRECTION // AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTION // IMMERSIVE ART CREATION
The 2024 official Spirit Lake poster designed by Young and Sick.
The 2024 Spirit Lake Map, designed by Young & Sick.
Spirit Lake at Hulaween 2024
Hulaween’s coveted Spirit Lake is heralded as one of North American festivals' leading immersive art experiences, brimming with talented sculptors, fire/metal workers, painters, performers, digital artists, and lighting designers. Attendees can revel in the lakefront audiovisual water projection experience by Sprit Lake's Creative Director Justin Bolognino, with a hypnotizing light show by Helm, interactive installations featuring visual and performance art, and catch performances at Spirit Lake’s multiple stages.
This year, Spirit Lake offered over 45 art experiences, including never-before-seen pieces and returning classics at Spirit Lake, encompassing the thematic concept “ESCAPED!” Attendees will enter an enchanting experience with an array of creatures in the form of various art installations that have “escaped” from the depths of the lake.
A new stage called OFF LIMITS, curated by Atlanta's DEF, offered a cutting-edge, immersive 360-degree experience within the mystic festival grounds. It brought Hulaween attendees closer to their favorite underground artists than ever before, featuring a medley of the most in-demand acts across house, techno, drum and bass, UKG, and bass. The innovative stage experience complemented its underground music programming with pyro effects from Incendia and a Funktion-One sound system. Hulaween’s inaugural OFF LIMITS Stage lineup featured artists such as Chris Lake, Azzecca, Ian Asher, Will Clarke, GUDFELLA, Bou, Taiki Nulight, AYYBO, Eazybaked, CHROMEBODIES, Riordian, Justin Jay b2b Nala, and more.
In true Spirit Lake fashion, the new OFF LIMITS stage has been designed and built by Duende, whose Birdhouse Village at Spirit Lake has been a mainstay for five iterations. The mysterious gothic temple-inspired structure will feature dark designs and stained glass windows merging with DEF’s signature 360-degree concept and event production style. The teaser video sets the tone for the debut of the new stage positioning OFF LIMITS “for those who are lost, but not ready to be found - all are welcome, even the misfits.” The dazzling new immersive stage was Creative Directed by Justin Bolognino and Art Directed by Rüts, with architectural renderings by Tessa Etc.
Several Spirit Lake classics will be returning for Hulaween’s 2024 edition, including Ian Tuma’s House of Lost, Duende’s Birdhouse Village, Ania Amador’s Mural Maze, Ashley Spereo’s Spereo Art, Kyle Smith’s Regenerate, Essi Rhodes & Rubin Robles’ Chatterpillars, Dan Shields’ The Spider with a new webbed display called Arachnophobia, and the highly-anticipated daily projection mapping from professionals Jasper & Shelby Mosher.
New installations joining this year’s Spirit Lake programming include playful aquatic world, Escaped the Void, by the artist ER & Johnny Crash, an array of paintings titled Shifting Views by artist Steven Teller, a vibrant celestial flora Bloom of Pleiades by Tessa Register, The Well - a magical well filled with TV displays by Save The TV’s, a large-scale fire installation called Ciprian The Great by Charlie BlackCat Smith, Escaped Performance Deck by Leelanau Plant Co x Zen Garden, a healing Tea Sanctuary by Wandering Lion, the mind-bending Magic Mirror by Sporeganic, and stunning new lake screen show visuals with content by Lightbrush x MicrodoseVR, Oelhan, Mind Balloon, SCARLETMOTIFF, Polyhop, Seeing Into The Unknown, Jonas Pfeiffer, Julius Horsthuis and Davy Evans.
At the helm of this new era for Spirit Lake is second-year Creative Director Justin Bolognino, the CEO and co-founder of META. The company creates live, multi-sensory experiences that use technology, design, and storytelling to ignite the human senses and spirit. Bolognino's previous work involves designing immersive artistic experiences in collaboration with artists such as Skrillex, Phish, Questlove, Porter Robinson, Tiësto, and many more. In addition to working with musical acts, META also has various brand clients such as Google, Spotify, Samsung, Vimeo, and more.
Spirit Lake's ever-evolving art experience has grown over the past decade to become a vibrant, experimental petri dish for up-and-coming experiential artists to test their new works and hone their craft. With the addition of the OFF LIMITS stage for the 2024 edition, Spirit Lake will remain a vital part of Hulaween’s identity that keeps fans mesmerized year after year.