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Photo: Jack Hall/PA Media Assignments Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience has officially entered the history books as a Guinness World Record holder for the longest theatrical run of a musical immersive theatre production, with more than 31,000 performances (and counting) since its launch in 2019.  Created by immersive producers Layered Reality in partnership with legendary composer Jeff Wayne and executive producer Damian Collier, the experience blends live actors, virtual reality, holograms, 5D effects, and a groundbreaking soundscape across 24 scenes to bring Wayne’s iconic musical version of HG Wells’ novel to vivid life.  The certificate was presented during a special ceremony at the production’s home on Leadenhall Street in the City of London on Monday, 29th September 2025. Since opening, the experience has had over 300,000 visitors, more than 20,000 five-star reviews across all platforms (including over 6,000 on Tripadvisor), and won 14 major awards. These accolades include five consecutive TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards and the prestigious Thea Award, considered the Oscars of the interactive industry.  Photo: Jack Hall/PA Media Assignments Speaking on receiving the Guinness World Record, Jeff Wayne said: When we first launched The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience, it was one of the very first truly original immersive productions of its kind. We hoped it would run for around six months, but never imagined it would still be running over six years later, winning so many awards, and welcoming over 300,000 people through its doors. To now achieve a Guinness World Record title is historic and a testament to the creativity, innovation and passion of everyone involved. This title cements the legacy of a show that has always pushed the boundaries of what live entertainment can be. And we’re already planning our next iteration of this wonderful entertainment Andrew McGuinness, CEO of Layered Reality, added: Setting a Guinness World Record title is the ultimate recognition of this production's scale and impact. From the cast and crew to the creative team and, most importantly, our audiences, this production has been a labour of love that has set new standards for immersive entertainment. This title celebrates the enduring power of the show and its place as a true original in the immersive world. We could not be more thrilled to see it recognised on a global stage. Blending live actors who engage with audiences, virtual reality, holograms, 5D effects, and Wayne’s iconic music, the production has consistently been hailed as one of the world’s most innovative immersive experiences. The show features vocal performances from Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs), Nathan James (Inglorious), and holographic performances by Carrie Hope Fletcher, Tom Brittney, Anna-Marie Wayne and others, combined with state-of-the-art technologies that plunge audiences into the heart of HG Wells’ classic Martian invasion story. Photos: Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience is currently booking until 30th December 2025 at 56 Leadenhall Street near Aldgate. Tickets start at £43.00 and can be purchased via feverup.com

With an exceptional performance from Kate Webster, The Shop for Mortals and All Fools is a profoundly affecting piece from Director Vinicius Salles Photo: James Lawson This review is from the February 2025 run at Stanley Arts The Shop For Mortals and All Fools is the latest show from director Vinicius Salles. An immersive, site-specific retelling of The Bacchae by Euripides, the show is told from the perspective of Agave - the mother of Pentheus and aunt of Dionysus - as the god of wine and ecstasy returns to Thebes to claim his divine right. The Bacchae is having quite the moment within London's immersive scene right now, with Sleepwalk Immersive's retelling of the story coming to Hoxton Hall in March. While both shows are based on the same text, their approaches to adapting it differ in some key ways. Set within an antique shop in an unnamed English village, shopkeeper Agatha (Agave, played by Kate Webster) has invited a small audience of 10 people to preview the shop's latest collection. While not every item may be for sale, they all have their own story to tell, and nearly all of them lead back to their nephew Dominic's (Dionysus) return to the village. Photo: James Lawson By way of introduction, visitors are invited to explore this collection and remove the sticker alongside an item of their choosing if they think it may contain a hidden coin gifted by the Gods. With information on each item provided in a catalogue, visitors are free to browse the collection and make their own decisions. While it's an engaging beginning to the show, the combination of low light within the space and small font size makes it a challenge to make an informed decision, with most visitors settling on any available sticker they come across after a few moments. The consequences of these decisions aren't immediately clear but become important later on for one audience member. Photo: James Lawson Slowly unfolding over the next 45 minutes, Agatha recounts the tale of growing up in the brothel overlooking the village where she and The Vixens would worship Cybele, the goddess of fertility. She speaks of her sister falling pregnant and giving birth to a child that the villagers believed to be half human, half God, and her marriage to the man who would become Pastor. As the years passed, she would indulge more and more in drinking to speed up the passage of time, until one day a newspaper headline stating 'Banished God Returns' changed the trajectory of her life. Those familiar with The Bacchae will know the next part of this story. With Dominic's return heralding the village's descent into frenzy, Agatha is drawn into the woods and joins the crowds of women deep in ritualistic worship of the newly returned God. It's a choice that later leads to the death of Preston (Pentheus) at the hands of his mother, who decapitates him while believing him to be a lion. Photo: James Lawson Within the show's space, Kate Webster has a commanding presence. Given the experience both Salles and Webster have as choreographers, it's little surprise that Agatha's movement throughout the space is utterly enthralling. Constantly shifting and contorting as she traverses the room, Webster injects every scene with a wonderfully fluid sense of self. Alongside this, her performance of the show's text is exceptional, ranking up there with some of the best we've ever seen in an immersive, site-specific show. While all of Agatha's interactions with the audience are fairly light, there are select moments where she interacts directly with them. Some of the sustained eye contact between Agatha and audience members has a terrifying menace to it, and smaller interactions inviting the audience to scatter bark across the space's central table create a wonderful visual to go alongside her descent deeper into the woods outside the village. Midway through the show, the whisper of a prophecy is shared with one audience member. Photo: James Lawson By the conclusion of The Shop for Mortals and All Fools, Agatha's feelings are clear. She's been shaken by her retelling of past events, and she holds the village's men responsible. Drinking numbs the pain and represses her memories, but the objects she holds onto still have great meaning. For one audience member, their earlier choice of which artefact to claim as their own will reveal an even deeper meaning, but for the rest of us, our time in the shop is over. The Shop For Mortals and Fools is an exceptionally well-crafted piece of immersive, site-specific theatre. Tickets for the current run at Stanley Arts are sold out, but here's hoping the shop's opening hours are soon extended so more people can hear Agatha's story first-hand. ★★★★ ½ The Shop for Mortals and All Fools runs at COLAB Tower Arts until 11th October 2025. Tickets are priced from £30.00. To find out more about the show and to book tickets, visit tickettailor.com

Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy This November, The Last Days of Pompeii: The Immersive Exhibition , will open its doors at Immerse LDN, Excel London Waterfront. Following huge success globally, the award-winning exhibition will make its UK debut and take visitors on an unprecedented journey through ancient Pompeii, using a striking combination of cutting-edge technology and rich, historical narratives.     Spanning 3,000 square metres and over 10 different galleries and installations, The Last Days of Pompeii: The Immersive Exhibition is the largest of its kind and invites visitors to immerse themselves in the heart of the Roman City as they witness one of history’s most dramatic events – the sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius – and discover the culture and fascinating stories of those who lived there in 79 AD.    Visitors begin their journey in a gallery that sets the stage for the story of the city. Surrounded by scenic recreations of Roman architecture with painted frescos, stone floors and imposing columns, they'll discover a curated selection of artefacts and replicas. Fragments of marble sculpture, Roman mirrors, bronze utensils, glass jars and household items illustrate the sophistication of the city and offer a glimpse into the intimate details of daily life. Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy Amongst the impressive artefacts on display will be a marble sculpture of Diana’s (the goddess of hunting) torso, a bronze Roman sculpture depicting a life-size ‘Calceus Senatorius’ shoe and a bronze bridle strap (Terret) from Roman Britain. These objects are accompanied by narrative displays and reconstructions that evoke the atmosphere of Pompeii in the first century AD.   The introduction leads to a deeply moving gallery where casts of Pompeii’s citizens are displayed. The figures are shown in the very positions in which they were found, preserved by the calcified ash that engulfed the city in 79 AD. Haunting in their realism, the casts present an emotional reminder of the eruption’s human cost.   Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy From here, the narrative shifts to the first of the exhibition’s digital highlights. Guests will sit for a 360° Virtual Reality sequence that transports them into a Roman amphitheatre. They mount a chariot and enter the arena to the roar of thousands of spectators. From this unique perspective, they experience the intensity of gladiatorial combat at close quarters. The experience builds to a climactic naumachia - a staged naval battle within the amphitheatre - where ships collide and water surges around the combatants, offering a completely unique perspective to the exhibition.   After this encounter, visitors step into one of Europe’s largest immersive projection halls. Towering eight metres high, the installation surrounds audiences with the sights and sounds of Pompeii. The sequence unfolds in three acts: first, the bustling daily life of the city with its crowded streets, vibrant markets and monumental temples; then the looming threat of Vesuvius as the landscape darkens; and finally, the eruption itself. These immersive projections place visitors at the very heart of Pompeii, allowing them to experience the beauty of the city and the suddenness of its destruction. Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy The journey continues into a free-roaming Metaverse experience recreating the legendary ‘Villa of the Mysteries’. Here, visitors move through its restored spaces – the wine cellar, cloister and thermal bath – as they would have appeared before the eruption. Groundbreaking technology enables a collective exploration where groups can walk together, share discoveries and interact within the digital reconstruction.   A world-premiere addition for London is The Archaeological Explorer Room, introducing an interactive and educational dimension to the experience. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to take on the role of archaeologists uncovering concealed artefacts from digital sandpits. Large interactive maps reveal the structure of the city, and themed installations explain how Roman engineering, architecture and innovations shaped not only Pompeii but many aspects of modern life. Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy The exhibition concludes with two interactive experiences for visitors to enjoy. An AI Photobooth uses advanced facial recognition technology to transform visitors into patricians of ancient Pompeii, complete with authentic hairstyles, clothing and accessories. Finally, at the Graffiti Station, guests are invited to leave their own inscriptions, drawings or phrases, echoing the graffiti once scrawled across the walls of the city years ago. Lasting over 90 minutes, The Last Days of Pompeii: The Immersive Exhibition delves into Pompeii’s rich history and features a wealth of educational and informative displays, casts, original artefacts and replicas, and has been designed with children, families, schools and history enthusiasts in mind. Photo: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy The entire experience is underscored by a specially commissioned soundtrack by composer René Merkelbach, recorded with the Audiocult Orchestra and Choir. Blending ancient instruments with sweeping cinematic arrangements, the music mirrors the changing atmosphere of the exhibition, from the splendour of Pompeii at its height to the darkness of the eruption. The Last Days of Pompeii: The Immersive Exhibition has been created and produced by Madrid Artes Digitales, under the lead of creative producer Jelle de Jong, alongside curator and historian Míriam Huéscar, historical advisor and scriptwriter, Nacho Ares and executive producer, Jordi Sellas. Photos: The Last Days of Pompeii/Set Vexy The Last Days of Pompeii: The Immersive Exhibition will run at Immerse LDN near Custom House from 14th November 2025 for a 16-week run. Tickets are priced from £24.00 and can be booked via Fever .

London's best open-world immersive experience returns with its fourth annual Halloween season, bringing with it another excellent batch of story trails for guests to sink their fangs into. Photo: Alistar Veryard Despite still being September, in the town of Phantom Peak, spooky season is here. Returning for its fourth year, Phantom Peak's annual Halloween celebration brings with it eleven new trails for guests to work through, an updated cocktail trail, and the latest developments in its ongoing story. Billed as more spooky than scary, this latest instalment of the ongoing, family-friendly immersive open-world experience has become a mainstay in London's immersive calendar in recent years, standing tall as a shining example of why London is regarded as the best city in the world for immersive experiences. Regular visitors to the mining town will be familiar with the show's tried-and-tested formula, which has been continually tweaked and refined with each passing season. Four times a year, there's a town-wide retheme, accompanied by a fresh batch of story trails. Throughout these trails, guests explore the 30,000 sq ft town, interact with Phantom Peak's 15+ residents, engage with the numerous pieces of off-kilter tech, and solve puzzles over the show's 4-hour duration. While the focus of each storyline differs wildly from trail to trail, they're all packed full of humour and lead you down a rabbit hole far more bizarre, irreverent and offbeat than the starting point ever suggested. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those keen to collect all of this season's individual trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits. That's without giving yourself time to sink your fangs into the various other distractions on offer around town, which include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, the ever-popular sport of Platyhooks, and, of course, themed food and drink options, which this season include Halloway's Coffin Deluxe burger (complete with charcoal brioche bun!) and cocktails such as Harvest Plasma and Copper Vein. Picking up the ongoing storyline from Phantom Peak's summer season, this year's Hallowed Peak finds the town in lockdown after former Mayor, Dr Joy S. Furbish, who was long presumed dead, was confirmed to be alive and hiding somewhere in the area. True to form, Phantom Peak's creative team subverted Furbish's long-teased return last season by having the sausage-fingered fugitive appear in puppet form, thanks to a process developed by JONACO (the town's all-encompassing corporate presence) called puppetizing, which turns people from flesh to felt. With the town's tourist population all deputised as honorary JIA agents during the Opening Ceremony, this season of Phantom Peak sees Furbish topping the JIA's Most Wanted List, alongside the festive demigod Father Platmas, Philip from JONACO Marketing and, inexplicably, the real-life founder of Phantom Peak's fan Discord server (the specifics of their crimes are unknown, but no doubt severe). Photo: Alistair Veryard With each season of Phantom Peak delivering 10+ hours of new content (the 11 main trails on offer each take close to an hour to complete), this review is only scratching the surface of everything on offer, but from the half a dozen trails we've finished so far, it's fair to say that they're as varied as ever, and the high benchmark set by previous seasons' offerings has once again been cleared. As ever, Phantom Peak's storylines continue to engage with and lampoon popular culture. Whether they're taking shots at MrBeast's ever-growing empire or crypto pyramid schemes, these send-ups offer an extra layer of enjoyment to the character-driven storylines that fuel the Phantom Peak experience. Long-time visitors to Phantom Peak will also find numerous references to previous seasons throughout, which only deepen the show's rich lore further. Year-round, many of Phantom Peak's trails have spooky, supernatural elements, and the townsfolk are no strangers to battling with demons and ghosts. For Hallowed Peak, it's dialled up to an extreme, with mummies, ghouls, wolfmen, and Dracula all featuring to various degrees. Photo: Alistair Veryard 'The Axiomatic Zone', which wonderfully parodies The Twilight Zone, is one of this season's standout trails. In it, fictional actor Beardy Ham finds themself helpless against a Rod Serling-esque host (played pitch-perfectly by Luke Booys, via pre-recorded Jonavision videos), who's previously abducted dozens of melodramatic, jobbing actors and has now set their sights on one of the town's most theatrical residents. Trails like this, which fully embrace spoofing pre-existing properties, have proven to be some of the show's most popular in past seasons, and Phantom Peak's writing team (made up of Nick Moran, Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer) have never shied away from leaning into the elements that have previously resonated the most with audiences, taking their feedback on board. Woven into the DNA of Phantom Peak is a real commitment to ensuring the guest experience is as good as it can possibly be, and they're in the unique position of being able to deploy tweaks and larger changes at a far quicker pace than many other immersive shows can, thanks to the show's seasonal structure. Photos: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in town, after returning to Phantom Peak last season following a 2-year absence, bar owner-turned-lawyer Giffard (Stella Saltibus) continues to struggle with keeping their fugitive father, Furbish, out of trouble. Despite the JIA actively searching for Furbish, in 'Flight Of The Furbish', they've been running their mouth at the bar, telling everyone their true identity and revealing that Giffard is their child. Guests looking to play both sides and undermine the JIA puppet hunt will find themselves tasked with securing and destroying the only physical copy of the incriminating CCTV footage and finding a way for Furbish to escape town without being captured. The ongoing power struggle between Jonas and Furbish has driven much of Phantom Peak's ongoing storyline over the last three years, and to now have a physical representation of Furbish within the town's walls is a sure-fire sign that in the not-too-distant future, this chapter of Phantom Peak's story will reach its conclusion with The Great Undoing. Photos: Alistair Veryard Throughout Phantom Peak's history, its autumn and summer seasons have always had the luxury of running for several months before being cycled out. In stark contrast, Hallowed Peak often feels like an apparition – vanishing almost as soon as it appears. There are just six short weeks left to dive into their annual Halloween offering and discover everything it has to offer before Father Platmas ushers in Wintermas to see out the calendar year. While the show's constant seasonal turnover makes it true for every season of Phantom Peak, to see this much care and love go into crafting an experience that's only available for a relatively short time before being removed and replaced is nothing short of miraculous. It's an experience that has continuously outdone itself with each passing season, and with this year's edition of Hallowed Peak, Phantom Peak is the best it's ever been. Until the next season opens anyway... ★★★★★ Phantom Peak's Hallowed Peak runs until 9th November 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak's Hallowed Peak, check out our recent Reviews .

London's best open-world immersive experience serves up a healthy dose of cowboys vs aliens with their latest supernatural seasonal offering, Hallowed Peak. Photo: Alistair Veryard Spooky season is finally upon us, and with it comes the third edition of Hallowed Peak - Phantom Peak's annual Halloween offering. Billed as more spooky than scary, this family-friendly immersive open-world experience has become a mainstay of London's Halloween season in recent years, and as they so often do, the team behind Phantom Peak have outdone themselves once again. There's a lot for guests to sink their fangs into this season. First and foremost, there are roughly nine hours worth of new stories spread across ten brand new trails, as well as three interactive carnival games, the ever-popular competitive sport of Platyhooks, and refreshed food and drinks offerings across the site. Additionally, two add-on experiences -The Lunar Remedy, a revamped cocktail trail, and the puzzle adventure The Haunted Hunt - add even more to the experience. It's way too much to do in just one visit to Phantom Peak, but the show has always worked best when treated as an ongoing experience that you return to again and again. For this latest iteration of Hallowed Peak, the threats that have descended upon the town are fittingly supernatural. Across the trails, there's everything from shapeshifting beachballs to vengeful cowboy spirits, candy-based demons and sentient toys to frat-boy aliens all casting a long shadow over the townsfolk of Phantom Peak. While business may be booming at resident paranormal investigators Spectre & Vox, the true danger looming over the town this season comes in the form of a big red button. After being pressed by Mayor Pocket during the opening ceremony, a self-destruct sequence that threatens to destroy the town is inadvertently triggered, with a mere 4 hours left until the town is set to explode. Photo: Alistair Veryard As so often happens within Phantom Peak, what may start as just a simple request from one of the townsfolk will soon spiral off into a much more complex storyline full of twists, turns and humour. Those keen to get to the bottom of who's behind the plot to blow up the town will soon find themselves signing up for a pyramid schemes competition, subjecting themselves to a prolonged staring contest, hacking one of the town's many pieces of technology to talk to an imprisoned character and finally beating one of the townsfolk in a wand-waving battle to get the answers they need. Quite how the show's writing team can so deftly weave all of these disparate elements together into engaging and fun storylines is already impressive before you also consider that they manage to do it ten times over every few months without a drop in quality. Photo: Alistair Veryard Hallowed Peak also goes some way to pushing Phantom Peak's overarching storyline forward. In some cases, these developments are continuing storylines established back in the show's first season, which opened in Summer 2022. Don't worry if you're a newcomer though, this overarching story is still very accessible and easy to pick up within a few hours of exploration. There's direct mention of the much-teased return of former Mayor, Dr. Joy S Furbish, who has been hiding away in the vast system of mines below the town for the best part of a year now (don't believe the lies of the Opening Ceremony introductory video), and characters that have had a long absence from the show return, with Thirsty Frontier Saloon owner Copper back in Phantom Peak following a prison sentence for being part of a rebellion against the town's omnipotent leader, Jonas. While the continued success of Phantom Peak could be attributed to the ever-changing selection of storylines on offer, that's only a part of what makes this show so special. By design, Phantom Peak is driven by conversations with the townsfolk, and for those who want their immersive experiences to be full of one-on-one interaction, the show delivers in buckets. The cast, whose enthusiasm and openness to improvisation and, above all else, fun, make Phantom Peak a place people want to return to time and time again, and their attachment to the town's characters has only strengthened with each new season. Photo: Alistair Veryard While of course, the cast of Phantom Peak are all actors there to do their jobs, there is a real sense that they care about the people visiting the show, and do all they can to forge real, tangible connections with guests. Small gestures, like being welcomed back at the start of sessions by members of the cast who remember you, to the more overt displays of recognition like being referred to by name or calling back to previous conversations they've had with you, go a long way to making Phantom Peak feel like a living, breathing town with real residents. For first-time visitors, it's worth going out of your way to speak to any many of them as possible, even if they're not directly involved in the trail you're working through to begin forging your own relationships with the people that make Phantom Peak so special. Photo: Alistair Veryard October is usually a pretty busy month for immersive experiences in and around London. In stark comparison to most other Halloween-themed shows playing in the city this month, Phantom Peak is a family-friendly experience that can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages. As we close in on the 31st October, Phantom Peak is putting on extra sessions and extending its opening hours to get into the spirit of the season, with a late-night offering on Halloween evening. While it's by no means the most intense show themed around Halloween, it’s undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable and should be an essential visit for Halloween fans. ★★★★★ Photos: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak - Hallowed Peak runs until 10th November in Canada Water. For more information, and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com To read more about immersive experiences like Phantom Peak - Hallowed Peak, check out our recent immersive reviews here .

The exceptionally well-crafted Phantom Peak delivers another outstanding season of open-world adventures with JonaCon. With JonaCon, Phantom Peak has entered its 12th full season since opening in Summer 2022. An open-world immersive experience that invites visitors to engage with the numerous residents of the town, interact with off-kilter pieces of tech and solve puzzles while completing any or all of each season's 10 new trails. It's pretty much the closest thing you can get to stepping into a real-life video game and it continues to one-up itself season after season. With probably their strongest set of story trails yet, Phantom Peak has never been better (though we've been saying that with basically every season since it first opened..). Photo: Alistair Veryard While Phantom Peak's Autumn and Winter seasons have always been tied to the real-life events we have 'over the ridge' with Hallowed Peak and Wintermas, Spring and Summer are when the show's creative team can let loose with their own, original overarching themes. Previous seasons have featured the Platypus Parade, which saw the opening of Platyworld, a platypus-themed exhibition (which was actually a front for JonaLabs) and The Festival of Innovation, which had the town's residents presenting bonkers inventions such as The Fear Finder and ProstleBot in a science fair-style competition. JonaCon may be their most out-there theme yet... After tense negotiations and after bidding well over the odds, Phantom Peak has been chosen as the host town for JonaCon, a convention-cum-celebration of JONACO's head honcho, Jonas. There's a lot worth celebrating too - with JONACO recently having mounted a successful mission to space, mended relations with Wintermas demigod Father Platmas, and seemingly thwarted an attempted uprising from anti-JONACO group The Resistance in recent seasons. Huge banners adorn the town's main square, paying homage to the Sun Daddy himself, and groups of tourists have taken to cosplaying as Jonas to really get into the spirit of the convention. Photo: Alistair Veryard By way of summary for those new to Phantom Peak, the town used to be home to a local company, Miramine, which mined for a powerful substance called Diamant below the surface of the town. Following the unexpected death of sausage-fingered Mayor Furbish in a blimp crash, Jonas and JONACO swooped in and ousted Miramine. With them came a series of innovations and changes throughout town that are still present today. While some townsfolk love Jonas and all he's done for the town, others remain sceptical. There's a boatload more backstory we could explain, but this review would be 15,000 words long, and that's all you really need to know if you're a first-time visitor. As previously mentioned, Phantom Peak's new set of story trails are some of the strongest they've ever created. Thanks to the regular changeover of available trails with each new season, Phantom Peak's writing team are able to incorporate and build upon the elements of the previous season guests loved the most. The standout new character from last year's Wintermas season, Sherlock Bones - a dog puppet parodying Sherlock Holmes (though surely you realised that by the name alone..) - makes a welcome return in the trail 'Bad To The Bone', which sees Sherlock battling their nemesis, Meowiarty on the cliffs of the Reichenbark Falls in dramatic Punch and Judy fashion. Fans of Wicked will find great delight in 'Unpopular', which features a full-length parody of the musical's song that's aimed directly at one of the townsfolk, Perigate, who has long grappled with their position in the town's social hierarchy. Photo: Alistair Veryard Elsewhere in town, Phantom Peak's Videomatic machines, which play pre-recorded video content when a valid 4-digit code is correctly entered, have some exceptionally well-crafted films. We're introduced to the grandfather of long-time fan favourite Dr Winter (who looks suspiciously like Dr Winter, just in a bald cap) in 'Too Fast, Too Furrious', and a tense recreation of a basketball game made with a cast of puppets and a selection of the show's gift shop plush toys as a crowd in 'Winner Takes It All', delivers some of the season's biggest laughs. Phantom Peak also doesn't shy away from lampooning and commenting on the world outside the show throughout its trails, touching on everything from the emotional manipulation of television show contestants in a video package for Phantom Peak's version of Great British Bake Off, to calling out the likes of Mr. Beast for their use of young children's attention for monetary gain. Photo: Alistair Veryard Every trail zips along at an enjoyable pace, providing plenty of opportunities to interact with Phantom Peak's various townsfolk, who are the backbone of the experience. With a cast fully committed to improvising and responding to whatever they're being asked by tourists, every interaction with the town's residents is a delight. As with so many immersive experiences, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it, so don't shy away from interacting with the show's cast whenever you get a chance, even if they're not directly tied into the trail you're working through. With a very generous 4+ hours to explore the town every session, Phantom Peak allows guests to take things at their own pace. There's no danger of missing any big set-piece moments while in the town, as each trail's pace is driven entirely by however fast or slow any given group decides to work through the storylines. There are also plenty of distractions to pull guests away from the main storylines, with a fully functional arcade, a trio of carnival games, a bar with an extensive menu of cocktails and numerous food options courtesy of RoboChef, and add-on experiences including a Cocktail Experience and Puzzle Hunt. Photo: Alistair Veryard Late last year, when the pre-sale for this Spring season of Phantom Peak first opened, it was announced as the final season of Phantom Peak at their current Canada Water home. Since then, they've managed to secure an extension at their massive 30,000 sq. ft venue, with the previously planned final season now on hold for a little while longer. The team behind the show are currently working on locking in a new location for the show elsewhere in East London, seemingly confirming that the world of Phantom Peak has a lot of life left in it yet. Regular readers of Immersive Rumours will know our feelings on Phantom Peak have never wavered. It's the best immersive experience London has to offer and is the crown jewel in the city's immersive scene. An unrivalled experience that continues to deliver season after season, Phantom Peak is deeply rewarding for both first-time visitors and die-hard fans. Praise Jonas! ★★★★★ Photos: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's JonaCon season runs until 11th May 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more about the show, and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak, check out our recent Reviews .

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Phantom Peak is an immersive open-world experience based in Canada Water. Spread over 30,000 sq feet, each season invites guests (or ‘tourists’) to explore the town, complete story trails that involve interacting with the dozen-plus townsfolk, and try to learn more about exactly what the town's mysterious leader, Jonas, is planning for its future. Later this month, the show will begin its 13th season with The Burning Blimp Festival. During WXO Summit 2025, which was hosted at Phantom Peak, we caught up with Nick Moran (Creative Director), Danny Romeo (Experience Designer/Experience Director), and Jonathan Taylor (Head of Marketing) to discuss what makes Phantom Peak unique, the challenges and benefits of the show’s seasonal model, and the audience’s influence on the show’s design. Photo: Alistair Veryard Immersive Rumours: Hi Nick, thanks for speaking with us today. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do at Phantom Peak? Nick Moran:  I'm Nick Moran, I'm the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Phantom Peak. My job is twofold. I run the company and also direct the creative by leading the show’s writing team, which is made up of myself, Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer. I also produce the large amounts of video content in each season of the show as well. IR: Across the last three days of the WXO Summit, Phantom Peak has been referenced numerous times in talks and conversations as a great example of immersive work that’s had longevity and operates as a successful business, which is often not easily done in this industry. What is it about Phantom Peak that makes it different from other immersive shows, and how has its design allowed the show to run for nearly three years? Nick: I think there are a few things. Phantom Peak was designed from the ground up to be an open world that people would come to and feel comfortable in and could explore and get lots of different things from. No matter who you are, whether you're young, old, or an ageing hippie, no matter what happens, you can get a different thing from Phantom Peak. That wide audience base helped, as it means the experience is open and accessible to everyone. Secondly, the seasons. Having it feel like Phantom Peak is in some constant renewal – that's its big strength. It means that we can keep elevating the experience and keep trying to make better and better stories as time goes on. Most people don't get the opportunity to do that. They get one shot at it, and then they have to slowly tweak it as time goes on. We're a bit more fortunate in being able to do something different. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: That idea of doing regular content refreshes is something that I’ve heard AREA15’s Winston Fisher talk about this week. I think he sees it as a fundamental necessity for a show to have longevity. Alongside that, something else Phantom Peak does very well is integrating food and drink options into the show with the cocktail trails. From a business side, that must have been a consideration when you first came up with the concept of the experience. Nick:  Of course. The food and drink aspect was always inevitable, but it's also a duty. It's a four-hour-long show! They literally have to be able to eat and drink. Otherwise, we're basically in a prison camp. It's only fair. I always wanted to create a long show because I believe that dwell time and your emotional relationship with space are interlinked. If you're somewhere for a long time, you develop a relationship with it. Once, I was trapped for 17 hours in Amsterdam Airport, and I hate Amsterdam Airport. Imagine that, but positive – that's Phantom Peak. [Nick looks over to Jonathan Taylor, Head of Marketing] Nick:  How's that line, Jonathan? Was that successful marketing? Is that staying? Jonathan:  Yeah, funny. Very on brand. Nick:  Good. Thanks, Jonathan. [Nick turns back to Immersive Rumours] Nick: He said it was funny, but he didn't even smile, so he didn't think it was that good… Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: One aspect as to why people like coming back here again and again, besides the content refreshes, is that, I think, for regular visitors, Phantom Peak may have turned into their third space – that non-home, non-work place to socialise and connect – where they feel comfortable. Is that anything that you've ever given any thought to? Nick:  It was definitely something we wanted to make. We prioritise audience comfort. Although you could argue Turbo the Hedgehog making Terence the Talking Platypus play Russian Roulette is not necessarily audience comfort-focused. I would argue it's not. That just makes me feel comfortable. Phantom Peak is all about the audience; it’s somewhere where people feel safe to play. We always knew that those things would inevitably lead to somewhere that some people really wanted to come back to over and over. We didn't quite know that the volume of people or the strength of feeling that some audience would have would be so strong, which is incredibly flattering. This strange system and experience that we built and put together really has made people very happy. That's really very gratifying. That third space element, in those terms, I haven't really thought about, but it's definitely something that was planned out with a different metric. IR: We’re coming to the end of this current season, JonaCon, and The Burning Blimp Festival is right around the corner. How’s the planning for the new season going? Nick: The season is completely finished. We're ready to go. The season is ready to go. We've made all the content. Generally, we finish a season 14 months in advance… [laughs] Genuinely, the season is being finalised, but we are actually the most ahead of it for a season we’ve ever been. Wintermas last year was really hard to write... That's the season we always end up coming really close to the wire because going from Halloween to Winter is really hard, as they’re so close together. I can't work on two seasons at the same time. It's just too many stories; we lose focus, and we start to play against each other. That's one of the things that we're trying to get better at, but it’s the start of May, and we’ve finished the season three weeks ahead of launch, which is very good for us. IR: Earlier today, I saw you, Danny, and Tibet having a discussion about some of the specifics for one of next season's trails, so how do you define a trail being done? Nick:  You should think of our seasons like an order book. Once we’ve worked out the main beats and everything that we need in those beats, that trail is done. Eight of our ten-ish trails are now in call-outs, which is us saying that they're done. That's us saying we're committing to these things getting made. There might be small tweaks along the way, but generally it's quite rare. We might swap a character out or change a poster, but it's minor things that we'll find out in previews. Photo: Alistair Veryard Immersive Rumours: Hi Danny, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us what you do at Phantom Peak? Danny Romeo:  My name is Danny Romeo. I am Experience Designer and Experience Director at Phantom Peak. That essentially means that I'm on the writing team, and I'm the Performance Director as well. I'm also kind of the key spokesperson between the writing team and other departments. I oversee a lot of the execution of ideas. IR: You've been with Phantom Peak since the first season, and over that time, which is nearly three years, the show has evolved and grown massively. How is it trying to turn around new seasons with such regularity? Danny:  Yeah. I mean, the turnaround is quite quick. We've actually not struggled with it that much. I think it all comes down to the fact that we've created a very deep and nuanced world with a lot of different personalities and a lot of things happening behind the scenes. It gives us a lot of area to explore. But also, all of our characters grow a little bit each season, which means they always have something new going on in their lives. They've got new struggles and new challenges that we have to help them overcome. The turnaround is usually just about going, ‘ Okay, let's take what happened last season. How has that changed this character? How are they reacting to that personally? What does that present to them moving forward? And how can we explore that in a way where the audience can actively help them solve that problem?’ In that way, the town just becomes a living, breathing place that kind of grows on its own, and we just follow it and document it. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: One of the things we mentioned in our review of this current season is that the design of Phantom Peak allows you to take feedback from what audiences really enjoy about previous seasons and build on it in the next season. We’ve seen this recently with characters like Sherlock Bones, who audiences seem to love and has returned this season for a new trail. How do you take the audience's response to a current season and integrate it into the next? Danny:  Yeah, it's a balance. We did strike gold with Sherlock Bones. People seemed to really react to that, which is great because we have a lot of different stories that we can tell with him. It's that perfect balance of we found something that people really like, and also, we have a character that has the flexibility that we can do a lot more with them and explore a lot further with them. We do take a lot of audience feedback into account when making new seasons. That has changed things on a basic logistical level. People complained about walking a lot, so we made a much stronger effort to make sure that steps were in similar parts of town before sending them across. That changed the way we shape our story structure. We made a point of linking things together to create a vibe of investigating a specific part of town and then opening up the world as a story structure beat in direct response to people saying that they were walking so much. Things like the mid-show games with tokens are a direct response to people saying that they didn't feel like they were engaging with other audience members quite as much, so we created this more communal vibe. It's really affected every aspect of the way we make the show. But also, there are things that we have to keep for ourselves. For instance, some characters get really popular, and there just isn't that much to do with them, so we do have to have them take a bit of a backseat, and hopefully bring them back later when we've gotten to a point where there is more to do with them. But yeah, the audience influences the show just as much as anybody else does. IR: Do you think that way of working, where there are constant updates, is something that basically every experience, whether it be open world or linear, can take something from? Danny:  I think it really depends on the show. If you take Punchdrunk, for instance, they get a lot of mileage out of their repeatability within the model. They hide secrets and storylines within one singular experience so they don't have to update, and that's enough to bring people back because they want to investigate those secrets, and they want their own singular experience – something that they get to see that nobody else got to see. With us, because we are a slightly more linear experience. Yes, you can go anywhere; yes, you can look at anything, but we do have our 10 set trails, which are a bit more limiting in that we should refresh content if we want continued repeat business, because we have to give people new things to explore. If we only ever had the same 10 trails for a whole year, people might not come back as much because they've already seen those trails within 3-4 visits. I would say it’s a show structure thing, but it's also a… this is a bit weird to say, it's an earned thing. Theatre is a business, and ultimately the open market decides what shows succeed and what don't. I would say that theres' some shows out there that are doing well enough with their first run, but they aren't necessarily getting that kind of dedicated fan base. I would say it would be dangerous for a show like that to repeat and refresh their content all the time because they haven't quite gotten that loyalty yet. If the experience they're offering to a new group of people is vastly different from their first experience, they're not going to build on that word of mouth that they previously had. It might not be the same quality of content because they haven't quite found their feet yet. Once you've been in business for a while and you know what your audience is looking for and you know there’s a dedicated fan base, then you’ve probably earned the opportunity to do completely new content and bring people back for more and more visits. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: Hi Jonathan. Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us what you do at Phantom Peak? Jonathan Taylor:  I’m Jonathan Taylor. My job title is Head of Marketing at Phantom Peak, which essentially means that I lead on marketing and comms for The League of Adventure, which is the company that sits over Phantom Peak. My job is basically to keep the ball rolling with ticket sales, keep people coming back, and ensure that what we're saying is interesting, informative and enough to convince people to buy tickets. IR: From a marketing perspective, does the structure of Phantom Peak – in that the content and storyline of the show resets every three months – make it easier or harder to market than a show that didn’t have such regular seasonal updates?  Jonathan:  It's easier and harder. Every three to four months, we have a reason to go back out to press, go back out to influencers, creators, and the industry to get fresh coverage. Each new season is a point at which, as a business, everything changes. Our menu changes, our stories change, the set changes, the video content changes, and the characters change, so it’s a good opportunity to relaunch. We have 30% of people come back, which is, I think, an industry record. It’s insane. 30% of the audience at any one time have been to Phantom Peak before. The season's help with that because we have a lot of people who like to complete everything, so when we relaunch 10 new trails, they want to try and do them all, complete it all, get all the stories, and know what's going on. It's easy in that sense. At the same time, there are challenges. For the 70% of people who have never been to Phantom Peak before, us saying, ‘Hey, you're coming to JonaCon’, for example, means they might ask, ‘What's JonaCon?’. We have to explain that we're a seasonal show, and people might go, ‘Does that mean if I come now, I'm going to miss out because I'm not coming at Christmas or Halloween?’. It’s about trying to balance the idea that if you don't want to come to every season, you're not going to miss out by coming to just one season. Because we're relaunching all the time, people get confused. It's trying to unpack that in as few words as possible, while also being fun and interesting and informative. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: How do you go about making it clear that the show is ongoing, but the content changes regularly? Jonathan:  We've done a bit of a shift recently. We used to focus a lot on seasons – seasons were everything. We would change our logo with each new season. Now, we don't do that. Phantom Peak is the thing that's consistent. It's always the same structure. You're always going to do trails, you're always going to do new things. You have to come three or four times in a three-month period to complete a season, so that means for most people, it's a different show every single time. When you pay £45 for a ticket, you know you're always going to get a different experience. IR: Yeah. If people don't visit with every new season, and then they mention the show to a friend, all of the information that they had in their head about what the show is may be out of date when it comes to the trails and storylines. Jonathan:  Yeah, that's true. It's like saying, ‘I did this thing at Phantom Peak; you should go and do it yourself.’ There's no guarantee that they're going to be on the same trail, that they're going to meet the same characters, or have the same experience. One thing we're trying to look into at the moment is guiding the audience and feeding them the way they should talk about Phantom Peak, which is a really impossible task. We’ve recently started sending out surveys, which have very specific questions worded in a specific way to try and get not only the content across, but more of the feeling across, and trying to educate audiences afterwards. That's part of the whole return thing that we've got going on. The fan-run Discord Community is a huge thing with that too, trying to reinforce how we speak about Phantom Peak so that when other people are talking about Phantom Peak, everyone's using the same shared language. We often adopt how the community speaks about it and then might change that in a way that works for us, and then regurgitate it. It's about servicing the community and listening to the community, but also helping the new people who are joining the community for the first time or visiting for the first time and wanting to come back, having the right words to describe it. It's a challenge, but we're trying. Photo: Alistair Veryard IR: Phantom Peak is now in its 12th season and has a huge amount of lore to draw from. More often than not, that lore feeds into the marketing communications, especially the emails, which all match the show’s in-world tone and act as an extension of the show’s universe. From your side, how do you navigate that? Jonathan:  We try to send an email once a week, and we try to send it to people who are engaged with us. When we're going out to people, we're always conscious that they're probably not in a sales mood, so they don't want a sales email, and we have to make it fun. With Phantom Peak, we really are not a very serious company. We're a serious business in the sense that we have to make money, and we are always looking at how we can ensure we're delivering the best experience in a professional, high-quality way, but at the same time, we're not a very serious company. We'll come up with an idea and try it out to see if it works, matching the tone of the show. Basically, we want to be consistent. We want to be Phantom Peak whenever we're speaking to people. The secret is that we don't really have a clear reason for why we do that. It's just that we're fun. If we're going out to someone who's not bought a ticket, we want to give the tone of what Phantom Peak is, and if we're going out to returners, they already know the tone of Phantom because they've done a trail, they've watched a video, so if we're matching that, it just feels like an extension and something that’s inviting them to come back. If we send an email and we get people in the Discord community or elsewhere say, ‘This is hilarious’ or ‘This is funny’, it doesn't need a click, and it doesn't need a purchase off the back of it; it's enough for it to just keep people engaged. Photo: Alistair Veryard Recently we invented a character called Philip from Marketing, who doesn't exist. I just decided that we needed a scapegoat for something, so I found a stock video of a guy cheering, and I thought it was hilarious. I spent, like, 30 minutes laughing at it. I downloaded it, turned it into a GIF and put it in an email. We came up with an idea, and suddenly, he has a voice and a character. My uncle in New York sent me a message yesterday saying, ‘That Philip, he's really difficult; maybe you should get rid of him.’ He's only been to Phantom Peak once, and he's not going to buy a ticket, but he messaged me out of the blue saying, ‘Oh, Philip's up to his old tricks.’ IR: If your family is signed up for the mailing list, they know what you’re up to at work! That’s a much easier way for them to see what you’re doing than updating them all when you see them… Jonathan:  Yeah, it's another way to check in with family, isn't it? Sign them up for the mailing list, send them an email saying, ‘Oh, could you just test this email for me?’ and then we've got their data too! Phantom Peak's new season, The Burning Blimp Festival, runs from 23rd May to 7th September 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more about the show and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization

With the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak once again proves why they're the best immersive experience this side of the Ridge. Photo: Alistair Veryard The platypus-loving town of Phantom Peak has become a mainstay of London's immersive scene in the three years since it first opened. Over the last 12 seasons, the show's constantly updating selection of trails, all delivered through regular seasonal updates, has kept its detailed, lore-rich story progressing at a rapid pace and given guests a reason to return to the town month after month without ever running out of things to do. With nearly 150 individual story trails now under its belt, Phantom Peak has also amassed a loyal fan base and continues to take audience feedback on board to improve on each previous iteration of the show. With its latest season, the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak has once again outdone itself and delivered its strongest experience yet. Regulars to Phantom Peak will be familiar with the show's tried and tested formula. Each new season brings with it a fresh batch of story trails, through which guests explore the 30,000 sq ft town, interact with Phantom Peak's 15+ residents, engage with the numerous pieces of off-kilter tech, and solve puzzles over the show's 4-hour duration. While the focus of each storyline differs wildly from trail to trail, each one is packed full of humour, endlessly silly, and leads you down a path far more bizarre, irreverent and surreal than the start point ever suggested. Photo: Alistair Veryard For those keen to collect all of this season's trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits, and that's without giving yourself time to engage with the various other distractions on offer around town, which include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, and, of course, the varied food and drink options. This season, the town is celebrating the third anniversary of the blimp crash that supposedly killed former Mayor Furbish. Visitors to Phantom Peak's opening season will recall the aftermath of said crash, when much of the town's indoor area was blocked off by the wreckage, and during 2024's Festival of Innovation season, it was revealed in one of the trails that Furbish was actually alive and well, hiding in the mines beneath the town and waiting for the right moment to return. Photo: Alistair Veryard While Furbish's 'death' was a seismic event within the town of Phantom Peak in more ways than one, the biggest consequence to come of it was enabling its current leader, Jonas, to take over and kick-start the events that have been unfolding over the last 12 seasons of the show. Despite Jonas overseeing Phantom Peak from afar, their impact is nevertheless still felt, and whispered talk of their master plan - dubbed The Great Undoing - has been hanging over residents' heads for several seasons now. Will Furbish's return thwart Jonas's scheme, or has the damage already been done? Only time will tell. As ever, many of Burning Blimp's new trails engage with pop culture, subverting and parodying real-world personalities, media, and products. Fans of Severance won't fail to notice the similarities between the Apple TV+ show and the events of 'Pocket Change', which has Mayor Pocket (David Carter) battling against a clone of themselves (referred to as their 'Hottie') for dominance of their shared mind, and the Furby-inspired 'Unbox Me, Coward' concludes with one of the most surreal moments in the show's history - quite the achievement, given how off-the-wall storylines often are at Phantom Peak. Following on from last season's Wicked-inspired trail, 'Unpopular', it's the turn of Les Misérables to get the Phantom Peak treatment in 'Less Miserable'. With three full-length parody songs scattered throughout the trail, which focuses on the ongoing power struggle between JONACO and The Resistance, it's an ideal trail for West End fans, as long as they can handle the numerous digs and swipes made at the genre that are also littered throughout. Photo: Alistair Veryard Phantom Peak's continued embracing of puppetry, which has only ramped up with each passing season, has given the show's exceptionally talented cast a chance to show off their range as they take control of the town's felt-based residents. On one side of town, General Store owner Datchery (Tatiana Nicholle Davis) unwittingly finds themselves in the middle of a love triangle with the Miss Piggy-inspired Lady Oinkerton, with insults and raised voices rapidly escalating into something akin to a Punch and Judy show. Elsewhere, fan favourite Sherlock Bones (puppeted by Jimmy Roberts, who plays Lovehart) is on the verge of cracking their latest case wide open and needs visitors' help to connect the dots in 'No String Attached'. Giffard (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), the former Canal Bar owner who's climbed the corporate ladder to become a JONACO lawyer, also finds themselves commanding a Colonel Sanders-esque puppet of former Mayor Furbish as they continue to deal with their ongoing family struggles in 'Finger Lickin' Good'. Photo: Alistair Veryard Alongside the physical (and puppet) cast, Phantom Peak's continued refinement with each new season has seen them lean far more into filming bespoke video content for the town's Videomatics and Jonavisions (button/dial-operated screens that display pre-made videos when correct digits are entered). While many videos feature the show's regular cast, former cast members Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer, who now both serve on the show's writing team , work overtime as prominent on-screen talent, taking on numerous roles including an unhinged toy reviewer, a murderous cult leader and a thuggish goon. These engaging live-action videos lend themselves perfectly to the show's unique sense of humour and ramp up the ridiculousness of each trails contents even further. After 13 seasons of Phantom Peak, it's easy to take the show's unique design for granted. Upon launch in 2022, the trail format Phantom Peak adopted was a massive departure from the immersive, open-world norm most commonly seen in Secret Cinema and Punchdrunk productions. Within Phantom Peak, every one of the show's townsfolk remains in one place throughout the experience, meaning there's no risk of being unable to complete a storyline because they've run off behind a locked door, never to be seen again, and without any big set-piece moments outside of the opening and closing ceremony, which everyone is gathered together for, the show removes the sense of FOMO so often built into the design of other open-world immersive experiences. All of the show's best moments are available for every group at any time by completing the trails and interacting with the show's cast one-on-one. Photo: Alistair Veryard Those who have been paying attention to the show's overarching narrative in recent seasons have likely noticed that this initial, multi-year chapter of Phantom Peak's story appears to be coming to a close. Ahead of tickets to last season going on sale, it was announced that it was due to be their final at the show's current Canada Water venue. Thankfully, this closing season has been pushed back to a later date due to an extension on their lease of the venue. While we're still awaiting details on exactly what the future holds for Phantom Peak once it leaves behind its current home, it's clear that there's plenty of life left in the town yet, even if the Great Undoing sees it changed forever. Phantom Peak is far and away the best immersive show London has to offer. An unrivalled experience that continues to deliver season after season, it's a hilarious, engaging and deeply rewarding experience for both regular and first-time visitors. ★★★★★ Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival runs until 9th November 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival, check out our recent Reviews .

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Neil Connolly is the Creative Director of Immersive Everywhere, who are best known for adapting pre-existing IP such as Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders into live experiences. Neil has previously worked on creating immersive experiences based on The Crystal Maze, Tomb Raider and Peppa Pig, and has also produced work for the likes of Harrods, Sainsbury’s and Warner Bros. Later this year, under Neil's direction, Immersive Everywhere will launch The Traitors: Live Experience in Covent Garden, which is based on the hit BBC series.  At WXO's Summit 2025, Neil Connolly was part of a panel discussing adapting IP into live experiences, alongside Andrew McGuinness from Layered Reality (Elvis Evolution), Olivier Goulet from Supply and Demand (Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue), and Ryan Amstad from Pophouse (ABBA Voyage).  Following that panel, we spoke with Neil to find out how he approaches turning pre-existing IP into live experiences, and try to get an answer to one of the burning questions surrounding The Traitors: Live Experience… what happens to players who are banished or murdered? Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: Hi Neil. Thanks for speaking with us today. You’ve made a career out of adapting already existing IP like The Crystal Maze and Tomb Raider into playable experiences. Later this year, you're launching The Traitors: Live Experience. What is the first step in that process? Do you start work once you've already secured an IP, or are you already working on it long before you've acquired the rights? Neil: Great question. I will caveat this answer by saying there is a huge team of us, I'm just one person in the organisation, and I do not pretend to take credit for all of those things... I'm a creative director and a commercially minded creative. I design my creative in line with the operations of the show. Sometimes I have pitched and landed those deals. Sometimes things are brought to me, and I develop them out. To answer your question very directly, it always starts with ‘What is the coolest thing that people want to do or could do in that particular experience?’ I design my shows, and I always approach my creative with ‘I am a ticket buyer, and I have paid money to be at this experience. So, what is the coolest thing that I could be doing for the money that I have spent?’ I'm always designing with that in mind. From that, I then extrapolate and think, ‘How do we design a story and a narrative?’ and build from there. When I've designed most of that, I then go, ‘How do I onboard people into that narrative and into that design?’ Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: Creating a show based on a pre-existing IP means that you'll have stakeholders with a vested interest in protecting that IP, and it's a very different experience from creating original work. How do you juggle trying to keep the experience really great for visitors, but also satisfying for all of the IP stakeholders?  Neil:  IP holders are often deeply invested in their properties but may not always have a clear vision for how that translates into live experiences, so they’re always looking to us to come in with lots of ideas. What I've often done is create original stories using their world and in their world. So the question is, how do those original stories then operate within their world without ever affecting the timelines or the brand too much? You can't make a show in an IP brand and then, at the end of your live experience, kill off the main character because that's insane. It would massively affect all of the truncated things that go on with whatever else is happening in the brand, so you can't do those things. You often have to work in those gaps and in those myriads. There are often times where things we've done have then become linear within their wider, larger brand, which is super fun and super fun to capture, and it's really nice as a creative because you get to just be a part of the world and play in that world. It's just being super respectful to that, but also having the courage to go at it yourself and say, ‘No, I'm going to do this original storyline’ and ‘These are how these characters are going to develop and play out’. It's all about the public. The public perception, especially when you're doing IP, they're being fed through television or cinema or computer games, and they already exist. You have to respect and have the courage to play in that world. I think when people don't have the courage to play in that world and respect it too much, that's when live experiences become a bit weaker because people want to play. The public, the people who are spending the money coming to these things, want to play in that world. Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: If there are creators who are currently making original, non-IP work but are looking to explore the idea of taking on an IP or a brand deal, do you have any wisdom for transitioning from original work into the IP-based world? What do people need to consider? Neil:  It's a deeply personal question, not just for me, but for anybody who is doing it, because there are creatives who want to build their own thing, and I absolutely respect that. I have a lot of friends who do that. I just happened to have gone down the road where I develop IP into other things, and I'm really happy about doing that. It comes down to whether a creative wants to, or is willing to, work in an organisation that is their modus operandi. As a company, Immersive Everywhere takes on IP. We license an IP, we develop it out, and we bring those shows to the world. Spoiler alert: further down the line, there is original IP that we will bring to the world when the time is right. It's work we will have developed internally as a company, but right now isn't the right time because we're having too much fun and are really excited about developing IP into various different experiences. It's that balance of personal and business. There is no wrong answer, and there is no right answer to that question because it really comes down to, speaking specifically as creatives, not as business people, what do you want to do? Photo: Hugo Glendinning IR: I’ve got to ask you at least one question specifically about The Traitors: Live Experience, which opens in July. Without spoiling the experience, can you tell us what happens to people who get banished or murdered, and is it still going to be a satisfying experience for those who are eliminated first?  Neil:  Well.. I've designed an experience that is incredibly satisfying for everybody playing in an incredibly intense environment that has incredible subject matter. At the end of the day, it is a game, and you pay to play; you don't pay to win. Within the game, there are winners and there are losers, but we've designed an experience that guarantees that everybody has an incredibly satisfying experience, and it is always a win-win scenario. The Traitors: Live Experience opens in Covent Garden this July. To find out more about the show and book tickets, visit thetraitorslive.co.uk . To find out more about Immersive Everywhere, visit theeverywheregroup.com . This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization .

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. Inventive Productions is a London-based immersive theatre company that has produced three of the city's most well-known immersive cocktail experiences. Debuting with Alcotraz in 2017, Inventive Productions has since opened Moonshine Saloon and Avora to huge success, with over 1 million visitors having been to one of their productions since launching. Their shows have successfully launched elsewhere in the UK, with versions of Alcotraz now in Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Brighton and Bristol. Recently, the show launched internationally, with a location in Melbourne, Australia. At WXO's London Experience Week 2025, Alcotraz welcomed WXO attendees for a social networking event, and Inventive Production's founder, Sam Shearman, was part of a panel alongside Phantom Peak's Nick Moran and representatives from You Me Bum Bum Train. Following their talk, we spoke to Sam about how Inventive Productions first came to be, how they approach creating their booze-filled immersive experiences, and what the future holds for the company as it rapidly expands. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions Immersive Rumours: Hi Sam. Thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about Inventive Productions? Sam Shearman:  I'm Sam Shearman, the founder of Inventive Productions. We’re an immersive hospitality group with 10 locations across three concepts. We operate Alcotraz, which is a prison-themed immersive experience where guests smuggle their own liquor into the prison and play out a narrative involving prison guards, a corrupt Warden, and inmates looking to escape. We also have Moonshine Saloon, which is a wild western experience that predates Alcotraz – a sort of prequel experience, if you will – where you’re a bootlegger looking to join an illicit moonshine operation. Our most recent concept, which launched in 2022, is Avora, which is inspired by James Cameron's Avatar and the world of Pandora. Guests are transported to this other world where this really fun, super-detailed narrative unfolds for guests. We've had success in expanding nationally, so across those three brands we've now got nine locations in the UK: six are Alcotraz, two are Moonshine Saloon, and currently just the one Avora in London, which is in London. Last year, we opened our first international site in Melbourne, Australia, and Sydney is due to open later this month, which is super exciting. Avora. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: Something that came up during the WXO Summit panel that you were just a part of is that the original idea for Alcotraz came to you while you were a university student. Is that right? Sam:  I was a bit of the cliche of a guy who had an idea and would tell everyone about it. I didn't want to fall into the trap of not being the guy who also tried to do that. I had no background in this industry; my background was in business management. I did a brief stint at Universal Pictures doing new release marketing for them. I was also on a graduate scheme at Mondelez International, which is the corporate powerhouse behind Cadbury, Oreo and Kenco, where I worked across sales, account management and marketing roles. The idea for Alcotraz came to me from a few different angles. One was a genuine passion and love for the themed spaces that were starting to appear back in 2015-2016. Speakeasy bars were just coming around, but there wasn't a huge amount. There were a couple where you'd have to do a few knocks on the door, or you'd enter through a fridge door or something like that, but the level of immersion really stopped at the decor and at the intake. That always frustrated me as a fan of highly deep-themed experiences and theme parks. I always thought it was a missed opportunity not to have a narrative go through it, allowing you as the customer to be immersed from the start to the end, and that really frustrated me as a 24-year-old going to those sorts of venues at that time. I thought there was a gap there to create something that took that level of theming, that level of immersion, to a new height that hadn't been done in London before at the time. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions The second driver behind Alcotraz was a bit of a love-hate relationship with cocktail bars. I always found it frustrating having to give up a large chunk of a booking I had, trying to dissect complicated menus and figure out what's in there when really, myself and whoever I was there with probably wanted to catch up with each other. I thought there was a real beauty in a concept where the power was put in the hands of the expert – the mixologist – and you could say, ‘Hey, look, I really like this; I really like that’ and they could craft something that ticked those boxes, was a bit more creative, added a few variations and created something different there. The final element really was just the fantasy of true crime, the prison genre, and I thought that these three elements could combine, and that was the genesis of Alcotraz. It could tick a box that hadn't been ticked before with regards to theming; it could be a new cocktail solution where the power is in the hands of the mixologist, and it is a highly themed, highly rich experience that has storylines that would appeal to fans of The Shawshank Redemption or Orange Is The New Black and so on. Alcotraz. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: If you were to ask someone in London if they knew of an immersive cocktail bar, I think the odds are pretty high that their first answer would be to name one of your three shows. They’ve been tremendously successful and are really well-known amongst people in the city, right? Sam : Yeah. I'd say we've managed to gain a bit of a reputation as the experimental cocktail guys, and again, it's been a bit of a perfect storm with immersive theatre being on an upward trajectory. At the same time, competitive socialising has also gone through that same upward trajectory. There’s been a genuine culture shift in people's expectations of going to a pub, bar, or restaurant and expecting more. I think we satisfied that demand for wanting more at a time when people had other options. We’ve managed to find our niche within that world, but from the point of view of getting a really good story, you're going to get theatre, and you're going to get high-quality cocktails. I think that's where we found a really good lane that exists within the wider hospitality space. Moonshine Saloon. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: The theming of all three shows are pretty distinct from one another, and while they’re not based on pre-existing IPs, they use the tropes and iconography of things people are familiar with – prisons, westerns and sci-fi. There must be a lot of other genres that you've considered for future shows, right? Sam:  Yeah. To answer the first part of the question, whilst inspired by popular films and TV shows, we have created our own worlds within our experiences and even have our own little interconnections between the storylines. There is no affiliation, reference or connection to any existing IP, as it is all our own creation, which is something we are very proud of. It's really important to pick, in terms of theming, something that has a fan base or a preconception about it. That's where the beauty of new concepts could be, but the sky's the limit, and the model works. Our format of being very intimate shows, where you, as a guest, get very close contact with an actor, is not done in many of these experiences because often they have a much higher throughput of guests. Ours are very intimate by design, which means nine times out of ten, the actor's going to know your name, and you're going to know the character’s name by the end of it. That allows this great shared camaraderie to exist between you and a small group as an audience, which I think delivers something unique compared to some of the much larger experiences out there. That can be translated to different themes and different concepts. As for which ones will be successful? If I had a crystal ball that could tell me, that would be amazing. Avora. Photo: Inventive Productions IR: What do your future plans look like for the company? Have you got any new shows on the way, or is your focus on expanding the shows that already exist into new territories? Sam:  It’s a bit of both. We’re definitely trying to navigate which cities globally have the demand and the appetite for our immersive experiences and taking the existing IP that we've created and opening them in the right cities. That's one half of the trajectory over the next two to four years. London remains a unicorn from the point of view that it has the highest throughput of experiences happening, the highest throughput of guests that are attracted to them, and therefore we're going to continue to use London as our hotbed to create new concepts.  We've got some really exciting ones coming. One centred more within a fantasy world, which we're super excited about. There’s a huge fan base that we're looking to attract who will be fans of that genre in general, and then another concept is a format shift in trying to differentiate from what we've previously done. A lot of our experiences so far and in a lot of other experiences, the characters are so obviously signposted. What I mean by that is the Guard at Alcotraz, they’re the actor; they’re who you’re going to speak to. The same goes for the scientist at Avora; they're wearing the costume; you know it's the actor. These characters are, by design, exaggerated and over the top. I think there's a really nice new territory to play within that I haven't seen done that many times on our scale, where the lines between the guest and the actor can be way more blurred. Instead of having over-the-top characters, over-the-top costumes and accents, there's a story that can be born from the idea of who can I trust, who is involved in this experience and who is not involved. You might be sitting with a couple that you think are going through this for the first time with you, but they reveal themselves in the final moment as being a part of this massive conspiracy. There's a lot to unpack there and to be revealed, but I feel like that’s a new territory for us to play within. Moonshine Saloon. Photo: Inventive Productions For more information and to book tickets for Alcotraz, Avora and Moonshine Saloon, visit their respective websites, which are linked below. alcotraz.co.uk avora-experience.co.uk moonshinesaloon.com This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization .

This article is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of WXO's London Experience Week 2025. SWAMP is a London-based brand agency that has previously worked with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Warner Bros to create immersive and experiential activations. From an overnight stay in the John Wick universe to a blood-soaked Vought office, SWAMP have consistently delivered elaborate and detailed experiences for some of the world's best-known global brands, alongside a string of critically-acclaimed ticketed Original productions for the general public, including The Drop, Saint Jude and the Isklander Trilogy. At WXO's London Experience Week 2025, SWAMP's Ollie Jones and ITV's Head of Brand Experiences, Charlie Cooper Henniker, presented a case study on their collaboration on a brand activation to promote Trigger Point Series 2 in 2024. Following their talk, we spoke to Ollie about SWAMP's path to becoming a brand experience agency, how that work sits alongside their Original productions, and their approach to creating new experiences. Photo: SWAMP Immersive Rumours: Hi Ollie, thanks for speaking with us today. Do you mind just introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about SWAMP? Ollie Jones: My name's Ollie Jones; I'm the co-founder and CEO. SWAMP is a brand experience agency and an immersive experience production house. We work with brand partners to do marketing events, and we also, at times, produce our own independent direct-to-consumer events. IR: Our readers are probably going to be more familiar with your original productions like The Drop and St Jude, but the brand activation side of the company is far more active than the original productions side. I would love to know how you first established yourself as an immersive brand agency. Ollie: Me and Clem, my co-founder, and some of the key early members of SWAMP are from a theatre background; we studied theatre. Clem and I started the company because we saw a lot of brand experience stuff happening, and we thought it was a bit flat and bland. When we were sweating blood into an Edinburgh show for no money and putting all our free time, and often all our not-free time, into that, we began to realise that brand experience work could be commercially rewarding and could help to prop up that other side of our life. We thought we could add something to the world of brand experience, and our expertise fits it really well. We always had dreams of doing our own stuff with the proceeds of brand work eventually, but that was expedited when we hit lockdown because everything got cancelled. We had nothing else to do, so we decided to make Plymouth Point, which is the first of the Isklander games. We felt we should do something during lockdown; we had nothing else to do, and we thought we had a cool idea. We thought if nothing else, it'll be something you can put in front of people and say, ‘Do you want to do an online brand experience? They can be interesting…’ but it took on a life of its own and became its own thing, and actually did end up saving the company. We did get a lot of work through it, and it made its own money, so we came out of lockdown much stronger than when we went into it. Photo: SWAMP Following that, we did The Drop, our second show, for two reasons. One was to re-establish ourselves as a live company. Having gone into lockdown as a theatre company and come out as a digital experience company, we needed to reset everyone's understanding of what we did, but also we were starting to realise at that point that independent shows were not only artistically nourishing but also the best new business tool you could ask for. Potential clients would happily come; they'd happily take a free ticket to this show, especially when it turned out to be quite good and the press liked it. So now we kind of exist on this cycle. The brand experience work is the vast majority of our income, and the originals, as we call them now, are not the vast majority of our income, but they serve their own purpose in terms of our artistic integrity, in terms of a new business tool, in terms of being a creative agency that actually puts its creative on its sleeve, and that puts its money where its mouth is and makes its own shows on the side, so that's why we do both. Video: SWAMP IR: You mentioned that transition came about largely during the pandemic off the back of Isklander. For others working in immersive that want to do the same thing, do you think there is a viable path following the same model that you did, or do you think it was a perfect storm of doing successful online work during lockdown? Ollie:   I think we probably had all the right tools in place for lockdown to be as successful as it was. I think if you look at us and if you look at increasing numbers of other people who brands are working with, a lot of them come from doing their own stuff, and that's how brands find out about them. It's often that stuff that's better and more heartfelt and more interesting, and like it's a work of passion or organic artistic expression, and that's where I think the strongest connection with an audience is. It makes sense that people who work in the brand experience space go to things like that and think that's what I want my audience to feel. Also, we made Plymouth Point on nothing. Something we keep trying to do is remember we made that show on nothing. There are ways to make something interesting within a budget; you don't need a brand experience budget to make something that makes you feel. IR: Finally, one thing that I've always found interesting about SWAMP’s work, whether it’s branded or original production, is that you've never repeated an idea. With every new show, you completely reset. Is that coming from a place of just not wanting to repeat yourself, or are you trying to expand your scope so that in the future you have a wide-ranging set of tools to pull from? Ollie: Yeah, I think the business sense would say it's not the right thing to do, because we find a formula that works and then immediately throw it away and start something new, but I do think it comes from a genuine interest in trying new things. New stories and ideas come to us, and we want to just get into them in different ways. We like to stay creatively motivated and creatively interested, and it in itself has become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now we've done however many originals that are completely different from each other, it keeps the impetus on us to make sure the next original IP is something brand new and different again, and we have an idea, which again is a completely new format… Photo: SWAMP For more information on SWAMP, visit swampexperience.com . This interview is part of Immersive Rumours' coverage of the World Experience Summit and London Experience Week 2025, which has been made possible thanks to the World Experience Organization .

Image: CityDays/Race Across The World: The Experience On 11th November, CityDays will be adding a touch of festive magic to its popular adventure game with the launch of a brand-new route for Race Across the World: The Experience London . Building on the huge success of the original, the second route introduces new hidden gems of the city, exciting new gameplay, and a seasonal twist to celebrate the winter months.   Based on the hit TV series from Studio Lambert, part of All3Media, the experience invites players to live out their Race Across the World dreams as they navigate the city, make strategic decisions, manage a tight budget, and race against the clock - this time with a touch of winter magic. Along the way, teams will uncover secret treasures, embrace the seasonal spirit, and work together to triumph in a race like no other.   Creatively designed to capture the sights, sounds, and spirit of London in the colder months, the new route takes participants on a 4-5 km race through a fresh corner of the capital, winding through twinkling streets and lively neighbourhoods. From November, players will uncover seasonal highlights, including dazzling shopfronts and glittering street displays, cosy cafés, bustling markets, welcoming pubs, and partner venues offering exclusive discounts, perfect for warming up with a glass of mulled wine or hot chocolate, enjoying a festive treat, or planning their next move. Photo: Jamie Davies At each stage, local characters guide teams through escape room–style puzzles that are both physical and mental, challenging participants to think on their feet, collaborate, and unlock the next leg of the race. Alongside the updated gameplay comes a fresh approach to budget management, with new ways to earn extra funds as the race unfolds, adding an extra layer of strategy to the adventure.   As with the existing route, teams are scored on both their time and remaining budget, with live leaderboards tracking the top performers of the day and week. Whether racing to win or simply soaking up a new side of London, this new experience offers a unique and thrilling way to explore the city.   Tom Rymer, founder of CityDays, said: We’re incredibly excited to introduce a brand-new route for Race Across the World: The Experience. It’s a fresh challenge for fans and newcomers alike, combining physical puzzles, a brand-new part of London, and an extra layer of festive atmosphere for the winter months. It’s the perfect mix of adventure, strategy and seasonal fun. With these two exciting routes across London, Race Across the World: The Experience London gives friends, families, and colleagues even more opportunities to explore the city in a fun and challenging way. From ice-skating rinks and festive light installations to historic squares adorned with seasonal displays and pop-up winter villages, the adventure is full of winter magic and hidden discoveries waiting around every corner.   Whether a long-time Londoner or visiting for the holidays, this limited-edition experience reveals secret treasures around every street and captures the magic of the city at its most festive. Those who signed up to the  waitlist  can now access discounted presale tickets, giving them 20% off and 48 hours of exclusive booking ahead of general release on Thursday 25th September. Race Across The World: The Experience West End will run from 11th November 2025. Tickets are priced from £25.oo per person and can be booked via  raceacrosstheworldexperience.com/london-west-end