10 Experiential and Immersive Experiences To Visit Before The Summer Ends

As we ease into our “new normal,” and back-to-school starts to occupy the minds of parents across the US,  here are 10 experiences that can immerse you in new worlds and create new memories that you should check before the end of the summer. 

Harry Potter Store in NYC

Be a Hogwarts student, cast a spell with your wand, and fly on a broom! You can run into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Harry Potter Store in New York, choosing two adventures through VR Experiences. 

Select “Chaos at Hogwarts” to use your spells to help Dobby after accidentally releasing magic creatures. Or, select “Wizards Take Flight,” to join Hagrid and show your best flying skills battling Death Eaters through the skies. Both of these VR Experiences are available in the store, and tickets are available now.

Once you have your tickets and arrive at the store, scan a QR code to join a “virtual queue.” Then, explore the store or the city while you wait your turn. Organizers recommend that you give yourself at least an hour to fully experience each adventure, so make an afternoon of it!

Unreal Garden 2.0 in San Francisco

Unreal Garden, “the world’s most advanced holographic experience” returns to San Francisco in August. Created by the original co-creators of the original Unreal Garden experience that launched in 2019, this new experience includes new artworks and engagement opportunities on updated hardware.

While the event isn’t available until August 5, the pop-up installation will only be available until the end of the month. Space is limited and tickets are on sale now.

Army of the Dead - Viva Las Vengeance VR experience

Las Vegas has fallen, the dead are ruling, and the Las Vengeance crew need your help. You can now live an immersive experience in Army of the Dead playing as a mercenary on a rescue mission. The Original Netflix Film “Army of the Dead,” adapted in this mixed reality game, will travel across the US.   

You can buy an individual or group ticket, and VR Headsets will be available with all COVID-19 precautions. You and your crew will shoot zombies from a  tactical taco truck for 30 minutes or more, and a navy/military/post-apocalyptic dress code is required. 

Illuminarium in Atlanta 

Illuminarium is an entertainment VR experience and event venue where visitors can travel to other continents or even outer space without a headset. Illuminarium’s mission is to give visitors a lifetime trip. The launch of the first Illuminarium in Atlanta, GA, will be opening its doors on July 1st, and tickets are now available. 

Visitors will have the opportunity to watch WILD, a Safari experience where visitors can get in touch with exotic animals in their natural habitat. SpaceWalk is another venue that allows attendees to walk the moon’s surface and even kick moondust. Also, space is available for hosting events, like a destination wedding.

Over 2021 and 2022, Illuminarium locations will also be opening in Las Vegas and Miami, so keep an eye out if Atlanta isn’t in the cards for your summer travels this year.

MoFE Liminality in Brooklyn

The Museum of Future Experiences is announcing its new show, “Liminality.” This new show will be a combination of virtual reality and ambisonic sound, exhibiting a compendium of immersive stories inviting visitors “to enter the unknown in the pursuit of a brighter future.” The show will be a seated experience opened on June 11 in Brooklyn, NY. 

The show is composed of three featured VR pieces: “Life-Giver”: created by Peter Lindblad and Alexander Rönnberg, “Mind Palace”: written and directed by Carl Krause and Dominik Stockhausen, and “Conscious Existence”: created by Marc Zimmerman. 

Van Gogh Immersive

Imagine you can get into “The Starry Night” painting and be able to watch every detail or witness the painting process Vincent Van Gogh went through in all of his art pieces. Now you can meet Vincent Van Gogh and his art from another perspective.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a 20 thousand square foot space with 360 degrees projection that is all digital, hands-free, and capable of maintaining a safe distance between visitors. The experience incorporates Vincent Van Gogh’s life, technique, and influence through informative panels and interactive activities. 

Also, the experience features “A day in the life of the Artist.” Visitors can wear a VR Headset for 10 minutes and observe eight of Vincent Van Gogh’s representative art pieces. The immersive experience just opened in Washington D.C. this August. The duration of the experience will be around 70 minutes, and tickets are available now. 

Secret Garden (Available in-browser)

Stephanie Dinkins presents "Secret Garden." an immersive web experience, where Dinkins portrays African American women oral stories through US History, such as surviving slavery, growing up on a 1920’s farm, surviving 9/11, and an Artificial Intelligence powered by African American women. 

“Secret Garden'' was produced by Stephanie Dinkins, Adaora Udoji, Nokia Bell Labs, Onassis Foundation, NEW INC, and ONX Studio. It debuted as part of the Sundance Film Festival 2021. The in-person presentation was available in ONX Studio from January 29 to February 3, but the project is available for free in the web browser.

Mad Hatter (Gin &) Tea Party

Enjoy a tea party where all are mad in this Wonderland experience. Mad Hatter's (Gin &) Tea Party is an actual fever event in Washington DC that offers guests an immersive trip into the rabbit hole for 1.5 hours with the Hatter and some of his mad friends. 

Attendees during the experience will wear a Mad Hatter hat and taste three crazy cocktails in a teacup as well as afternoon tea treats. Attendees will also have the option to request alcohol-free cocktails. The dress code can be casual, but Alice in Wonderland’s costumes are incredibly welcome.  

The party’s location remains secret now, but make sure not to be late and book now. The clock is ticking!

Meow Wolfe Omega Mart in Las Vegas

Meow Wolfe is an arts and entertainment group based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, now debuting their second permanent exhibition, “Omega Mart” inside Las Vegas’ Area15. With this theatrical, immersive art experience, participants think they are in a standard supermarket, which then explodes into surrealist art products for sale, like a tattooed chicken. 

Spectators will enter into a parallel universe with four spaces and 60 peculiar environments surrounded by interactive visual, sound, film, and digital content with all-dimensional artworks. Meow Wolfe offers participants a new way of visiting art galleries to engage with art like never before.

Failed to Render - Live in Altspace Every Week, Like in Vegas Every Month

Failed to Render went live in AltspaceVR to give people something to do during the pandemic. Having experienced significant success, the show will go on, expanding venues to Facebook Horizon and the Starbase Hybrid Event Center in Las Vegas.

The first Failed to Render in-person show took place at Starbase in June, and the plan is to return to the venue for monthly shows. If you can’t make it to Vegas, you can still watch the shows live in VR from anywhere. You can also watch recordings of the shows on the Failed to Render YouTube channel.

Remember All of the Things You Can Do from Anywhere!

We’re all very excited about the world opening up, so most of the experiences in this article are location-based experiences. However, there are still a huge number of VR events going on entirely in VR.

For an endless itinerary of virtual events that you can experience from home, look no further than the events page or creator communities of your favorite VR platforms.