Illuminarium, a technology interactive space in Toronto, is planning on exploring expansion in Canada with possible locations in Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver via a travelling concept.
The Distillery District location opened August of last year and has been successful since, especially during the holiday season. The company partnered with Toronto-based Secret Location and uses cutting-edge technology to engage all four senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, and touching. Along with any expansion plans, Illuminarium is getting ready for the increased number of visitors during the summer months.
“We had an incredibly busy period leading up to the holidays, which was fantastic. The Distillery District holiday market got somewhere between 800,000 to a million visitors over a six to seven week period, so we managed to get quite a few people through our space. The second busiest period for us is the summer, so as soon as kids are let out of school at the end of June, we are expecting more people to come see our shows,” says Ryan Andal, President and Co-Founder of Secret Location and Partner of Illuminarium Toronto.
The 13,500 square-foot complex has three rooms, and one that is designated for introducing guests to the experience. Andal says they welcome guests every 15 minutes and “pulses them into the space.”
“One room is for onboarding guests into the space, so it is a bit of a preview show that takes about five minutes or so. We can accept as many as 50 guests, although that does get a bit tight, so somewhere between 30 to 50 we usually put into that room. A host will come out, introduce the show that everyone is about to see and then after the show, we have the doors automatically open and welcome guests into the main, larger projection space.”
Andal says the interactive show goes on for around 45 minutes and has a mix of live gaming, interactivity, and cinematic narratives. Once the show is over, guests can experience an interactive play area, which right now is Light Bright where there is a photobooth area where they can turn guests into a LITE-BRITE Character and more activities.
LITE-BRITE: Worlds of Wonder
“Our LITE-BRITE show is doing really well and it is obviously playing into the nostalgia of that toy, and the gaming and play areas in that space works really well for both Gen Z, kids, and families. I would probably say that it is one of the best shows we have done from an event series perspective.”
The show is partnered with Hasbro, a leading toy and game company and is inspired by a classic toy and blends elements of gaming, creative activities, and technology to create an engaging and entertaining environment for all ages. Guests are able to create their own LITE-BRITE character, can turn themselves into a LITE-BRITE character using AI technology, and the space as interactive games.
“We have all of these childlike games that we have built into the experience. Colouring sheets that you can colour on the floor, we have QR codes that you can connect to and then draw a character and then see how it appears on the walls, and we have games like tower defence or exquisite corpse.”
Guests can expect a “60-minute interactive show, 12 activations in the digital play space, an immersive retail experience, three cinematic worlds, real life hosts to welcome you to the experience” and “visitors can us their bodies to interact with the immersive show, play and create a physical LITE-BRITE toy, and following the experience, visitors can take a memorable take-home photo.”
Future shows
- Wizard of Oz, an immersive musical that will bring the story to life with visuals, sound, and “a fully immersive environment.” This show is expected to appear by the end of the year.
- Mythologies will explore five different cultures including Chinese, Canadian Indigenous, African, Greek, and Norse mythology.
- Dinosaur-themed show featuring lifelike visuals and floor vibrations to enhance the experience. The expected timeline for this is about two years.
“It is the most requested thing that we have ever had in our space, which is people want to see dinosaurs on the screen. So we are working on a prehistoric world exhibition that I think would be a lot of fun to be able to see and feel it in that scale, particularly in locations like Las Vegas, where they have haptic flooring. So being able to see and feel the rumble on the floor when a Brachiosaurus is walking throughout the space would be really fun.”
New Concepts
Andal says they have added an immersive bar where guests can get drinks and snacks while “seeing a bit of the show playing in the space.” The new bar space is designed to match the theme of the show that is playing.
“I think in the summer months, we will start to ramp it up. Right now, we are just serving mocktails and snacks, but we are in the middle of getting our alcohol permits so once that happens we will start doing some alcoholic drinks.”
Andal says the goal would be to get an alcohol licence within the next month.
Illuminarium is also looking at adding a dining concept, similar to its successful location at AREA15 in Las Vegas. Guests would be offered a three course meal surrounding an immersive environment and live performances.
“The immersive dining experience in Las Vegas is really upscale, they did several nights during the Super Bowl and sold out every night. So after seeing the success, we want to figure out a dining concept here. We have been talking to a variety of different partners on how we can incorporate not just the dining, but a story concept into the show itself and it will be a bit experimental.”
The immersive dining experience is planned to be available by the end of the year.
Summer events
During the summer, Andal says there will be new collaborations with artists, such as its new wellness series.
“We have a wellness series that we are going to be doing and we have a partnership with a group called Soul Expansion. They do a bit of a meditative yoga experience and it was sold out the last time we did it as I think we had 180 people in the space to do the solo expansion experience.”
The space will also host comedians as these shows have sold out in the past.
“We are going to be doing a bit more in the comedy space and more in the wellness space – but that is the beauty of a space like ours, we can transform it into whatever we want. So whether it is a dance, vocal performance, comedy show, wellness experience – it starts off with a grey box, but you can turn that grey box into any environment that you want to.”
Expansion Plans
To provide this unique experience to everyone, Andal says the company is looking at a travel concept to bring shows across Canada.
“We are interested in wanting to see if we can bring this kind of entertainment and digital immersion to as many locations as possible. So we are in the midst of building a touring kit that we can bring into our other spaces for this show and other shows we are producing. So that is sort of the next big step for us.”
As for new locations in Canada, Andal says they are looking at expanding into Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, and possibly around Kingston, Ontario.
“I feel like there are lots of pockets where we can service the style of entertainment that is becoming more and more interesting. But we are still sort of in the early stages of figuring out more permanent locations in Canada.”
Glenn Green of g squared hospitality is representing Illuminarium in the Canadian market and can be reached via email.
Andal says the next location will most likely be in Montreal or Vancouver.
“I am very interested in the Quebec market and we are looking at a partnership with someone in Montreal right now. It is a very different market from Toronto and it does open up some distribution in Europe as well, which is interesting. Montreal also has a lot of creators and being able to partner with them would be the goal of why we want to open up a space there.”
Outside of Canada, Illuminarium is expanding more into the United States including a new location in Chicago opening this summer. The company already has locations in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
“When you look at the kinds of entertainment that you would get at Disney or Universal, for the most part, it always seems incredibly expensive to go to and is a once in a lifetime experience. And the types of shows and immersive experiences we have, we want to bring to larger city centres on a smaller scale to make it more accessible on a regular basis to the average family, that is our overall goal and the more that we can have these spaces that we can transform into different things – the easier that goal will be to accomplish.”
