Transmedia storytelling

Starstruck immersive music festival concept

This project is a guide for a conceptual music festival event which utilises themed, in-universe promotion, activities, and performances to tell a story about space travel which all attendees can experience as actively participating characters.

Branding

The overall brand identity of the event is shared with the fictional, in-story travel company, Starstruck Space Travel, which is managing the trip to an alien planet known for its music and nightlife culture and host to the Starstruck music festival, Musa Major.

The broader visual language of the event is grounded in 50s and 60s retrofuturism, drawing on 'space age' and 'atomic age' aesthetic elements from home décor to editorial design.

Colour

The colours used in the brand identity of the festival reflects its temporal nature, with the daytime duration of the event presented as taking place on the Starstruck Space Travel spaceship - designated warm, sunset colours - while the nighttime is set on the alien planet - with cooler tones of purple.

Typography

All type used for event media (with the exception of the Musa Major logotype) uses the 'Space' font family.

Hybrid character-uniform designs

Starstruck Space Travel flight attendants; general roaming staff.

Starstruck Space Travel ship captain; actor.

Musean pirates; actors.

Starstruck Space Travel bartenders; day shift bar staff.

Local bartenders; night shift bar staff.

Narrative events

The narrative script is split into 3 scenes, performed live (with some pre-recorded audio and video accompaniments) on the venue's main stage. The story details the trip from Earth to Musa Major on the Starstruck Space Travel ship, complicated by interfering space pirates who seek to sabotage the Starstruck music festival. Each scene is correlated with an interactive element which attendees participate in to progress the story throughout the duration of the event, between musical performances.

Interactive element A is an event-wide hunt for a stowaway pirate fugitive - portrayed by a costumed roaming actor. Festival attendees who see the actor can use their phones to photograph them and upload the image to an online form, reporting the location of their sighting at the same time. The most recently submitted sighting is displayed on hologram displays set up around the venue.

Interactive element B is a race to locate and press the control panel buttons which will reactivate the spaceship's shields as the craft is besieged by pirates, helping the crew - onstage actors - to defeat the boarding pirates.

Interactive element C is a quiz game hosted by the pirate captain with questions themed around the previous musical performances. Each attendee can cast their vote for colour-coded answers using a lightstick with 4 colour settings. This event also serves as an introduction to one of the headlining acts, as the band is shown having been taken hostage by the pirates to force the festival-goers to play their game.

Promotion

Promotional material for the festival is designed to exist within the event's narrative universe; this poster is modelled after 60s travel posters, presenting the fictional planet as a tourist destination.

The Starstruck website is styled like that of a travel company, with immersive copy and ticket-purchasing functions.