Wake The Tiger will open its new 80,000 sq ft Absurd City immersive attraction at Westfield London on October 15, expanding the fictional world first established at its Bristol site.
Described by the company as Europe’s largest immersive art experience, the attraction has been created by hundreds of artists, makers and creative specialists and combines physical environments, interactive technology and storytelling across five themed districts.
Visitors, referred to as Daytrippers, enter a fictional post-apocalyptic city overseen by REX, a canine digital interface responsible for monitoring the city and
its inhabitants.
The five districts include the consumer-focused Bloom Street, waste-processing district Reclamia, creative sanctuary Imaginopolis, hacker environment NEON // NEXUS and the gated Elite HQ.
Unlike a traditional exhibition with a fixed visitor route, Absurd City has been designed as a non-linear environment in which audiences explore spaces, passageways and story elements at their own pace.
That
approach was outlined by Wake The Tiger CEO and co-founder Graham MacVoy when he spoke to Inavate ahead of the opening. He explained that the London attraction had been developed with a stronger narrative thread than the company’s original Bristol site while retaining an emphasis on discovery and visitors getting deliberately lost within the experience.
Read Inavate's interview with
Graham MacVoy on the design of Absurd City
During that interview, MacVoy also explained that Wake The Tiger had moved away from an RFID-based interaction system that could have encouraged visitors to collect points, instead favouring physical interaction and shared exploration. Storytelling terminals remain positioned throughout the venue for visitors who want to explore the narrative in greater
depth.
The attraction has also been conceived as something that can continue changing after launch.
“The beauty of this is we’re never finished,” MacVoy told Inavate. “It’s always evolving. We’re not opening with a finished product. It’s never going to be finished, if something doesn’t work, we’ll just take it out and try something new.”
The finished London attraction
explores themes including consumerism, surveillance, environmental collapse and social inequality through environments ranging from hyper-luxury retail spaces to reclaimed industrial areas and biohacking-inspired installations.
Luke Mitchell, chief creative officer and co-founder of Wake The Tiger, said: “We've spent years imagining what a city with absolutely no rules could look like, and now people can finally step inside it.”
“Every district has its own personality, its own stories and its own surprises, and there's an incredible amount of detail waiting to be discovered. Hundreds of brilliant artists, makers and creative minds have helped bring this world to life, and what's most exciting is that no two people will experience it in quite the same way.”
Wake The Tiger
has also focused on maintaining the illusion of entering a separate physical world. In his earlier interview with Inavate, MacVoy described the importance of theming ceilings and adding layers of physical detail so visitors are not reminded that they are inside a shopping centre or warehouse.
Absurd City follows Wake The Tiger’s original Bristol attraction, which opened in
2022 and has since welcomed more than half a million visitors.
MacVoy said: “Opening Absurd City in London is a huge moment for Wake The Tiger. What started as a creative idea in Bristol has grown into an extraordinary 80,000 sq. ft. world in the heart of the capital.”
Absurd City opens at Westfield London on October 15.
Images: Andre Pattenden