The Gala-nominated event “Night Circus” transformed a parking lot into a whimsical evening festival
By Amanda Nicklaus
All photos courtesy Harley Bonham Photography
I t’s not an easy task to transform a parking lot into a magical event space. Especially not when the client is a repeat, and you have a history of wowing them with dramatic concepts. But the best event pros don’t treat this task as an obstacle; they use it as a challenge to showcase their creativity. That’s exactly what Studio F Designs did when they found themselves in this scenario. With the goal of entertaining 1,200 guests, the team took their client’s “audacious concept for a new event space” and got to work. With several tent structures, a large stage and dance floor, seating, bars, and more, the Studio F Designs team reworked the lot into what they needed, even removing some permanent fixtures. An added challenge: there was no CAD (computer-aided design), so the team reconstructed the lot from scratch and made a to-scale diagram to work from. Talk about dedication! The goal was to turn the parking lot into a “Night Circus,” with a big top and myriad performers. This was yet another pain point: the event space wouldn’t allow for a massive tension tent to be installed. That didn’t stop the team from creating a big top; switching it up, they created a big top out of a light canopy, with hundreds of feet of string lights rigged to a 30-foot-tall center truss.
The parking lot was covered with turf and turned into a courtyard.
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SPECIAL EVENTS WINTER 2024
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