Experience Immersive Entertainment in Vancouver: Escape Games and More

The trend is being witnessed all over the world: millennials don’t want entertainment that merely entertains or adds to their “pile of stuff”—they want experiences.

From Secret Cinema in London, who turn classic films into catered, costumed extravaganzas, to the rise of escape rooms, beginning with Takao Kato’s Real Escape Game in Japan, entertainment that offers more than a way to “turn off and tune out” is on the rise.

In fact, experiential entertainment is more than just “on the rise.” In 2014, JWT Intelligence—whose business is identifying the “global zeitgeist”—identified immersive experiences as the “leading trend changing the entertainment industry in 2014,” a trend that is continuing to play out as we roll our way through the decade.

Vancouverites craving immersive experiences of their own can find a variety of options right here in the GVRD.

Darkened Theatre (photo: Lloyd Dirks)

Interactive Theatre: Forbidden Vancouver

Not a fan of theatre’s “fourth wall”? Do you love it when actors come into the aisles and maybe even pull you up to dance? Well, then, one of Forbidden Vancouver’s city tours or special events is probably right up your alley.

For their “Lost Souls of Gastown” tour, Forbidden Vancouver combines a walking tour with a theatre piece to bring the history of the downtown neighbourhood alive, while their “War for the Holidays” event combined a holiday party with a WWI-set play.

Find more on Forbidden Vancouver here.

Expanded Cinema: Scent-sory Cinema

Taking a page out of Secret Cinema’s book, the Vancouver-based duo Here There put on experiential cinema as one of the many immersive events they run.

Their Scent-sory Cinema series has featured screenings of Strange Brew, complete with local ales, Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, and Hawkins Cheezies, and a showing of Amelie, paired with a Parisian tasting menu, to name just a few.

You can details on upcoming Scent-sory Cinema screenings here.

Immersive Gaming: Krakit Escape Room

Those looking to take their gaming off the screen and into the real world can immerse themselves in one of four imaginative scenarios at Krakit Escape Room in Burnaby.

Escape games present a way to bring gaming, puzzles, and mysteries into the three-dimensional world, putting you—literally—in the middle of the action. Whether surrounded by zombies or under threat by a mad doctor, you have 40-minutes to solve the mystery in front of you and emerge triumphant.

Investigate Krakit’s escape room themes here, for teams of up to eight.