The 2026 Festival Brand Guide.

Hoodie House — customization + limited drops

Gap's debut as exclusive apparel sponsor centered on personalization — patches, drawstring beads, collectible bag charms — all available only on-site that weekend.

Joe Jonas behind the bar at Aperol Day Club

Aperol put Joe Jonas behind the bar serving Spritzes to unsuspecting festivalgoers. Clips spread instantly — the surprise was the campaign.

Spray Bar — ice cream as fashion accessory

As the festival's first frozen-dessert sponsor, Magnum let guests personalize ice cream with edible spray paint to match their outfits — blurring food, fashion, and self-expression.

Reactive dancefloor that pulses with the crowd

A sensor-driven dancefloor reacted in real time to crowd energy. As participation rose, surprise sampling and crowd-screen takeovers unlocked.

Walls covered in attendee posters

Festivalgoers were photographed and turned into poster-style prints pasted across the installation, making the crowd itself the campaign visual.

NYC subway car you could tag

A familiar subway scene opened up for participation — graffiti walls, photos inside the car, disposable cameras as swag. The space evolved across the weekend.

The Brat Card — fictional prop, real $5 Visa

Cash App turned a fictional credit card from Charli XCX's movie into a real prepaid Visa. An if-you-know-you-know fandom artifact, plus concert presale access.

The work isn't sponsored. It's authored.

In every case the brand built something that needed the crowd to exist — that couldn't be screenshot, only attended. The artifact (poster, patch, Visa, ice cream) is the souvenir; the participation is the campaign.

Fresh District — an oasis between stages

Cooling elements, seating, DJ sets and light programming turned downtime into a social moment rather than a functional stop.

Coffee rave café on-site

A fully functional café with vinyl-only DJ sets, free coffee bar, and an exclusive capsule collection — riding the coffee rave wave.

The whole city became the venue

Floating spheres in Chaoyang Park, life-size band figurines at landmarks, hotel packages, themed restaurant menus, ticket-holder shopping discounts.

A free rave inside a working gelato shop

Underground selectors, RSVP-only, 5–11pm. The shop stayed open — you could dance and order gelato at the same time.

Scoop Shop — vanity stations + new iced coffee

Touch-up vanity stations, melted-ice-cream iced coffee samples, oversized donut installation. Useful at the right moment.

Rave-inspired Hydration House

Two things at once: a place to let loose and a place to recover. Ice-cold flavor sampling between sets.

Sabrina's Pitstop — a retro gas station on the drive in

Designed for fans driving from LA, the immersive pop-up just outside Indio offered a themed pause and a custom slushie before entering the festival.

The festival is a 72-hour story, not a stage.

The best work treats the trip itself as the canvas — the drive, the hotel, the after-hours. A sponsor puts a logo on someone else's space. A host creates a space people actually want to be in.

Mini-universe — Beautyverse, Dome, Backstage

A layered experience with a glam-meets-arcade entry point, a members-only mezzanine, and a backstage stage hosting live artists.

Rhode World as an arcade

To discover the new Spotwear pimple patches, guests had to win them — balloon pop and claw machine mechanics tied directly to the product launch.

Reusable cup as wearable merch

A carabiner turned the festival cup into something you wear, clipped to bags and belts. Suddenly the cup is part of the outfit.

Giant dispenser playscape

An oversized dispenser façade pulled people into a hyper-colorful world where they mixed flavors and built their own remix.

Dream in the Desert — four scent worlds

Festivalgoers stepped inside fragrances. Glowing woodsy landscapes, iridescent seaside illusions, soft floral lounges — four surreal dream worlds.

The Pint of No Return

A giant ice-cream-tub façade hid a multi-sensory interior — a full deep dive designed to challenge expectations of dairy-free.

Casino-themed protein chip launch

Spin wheel, table games, dice, 'Lucky You' on the walls. Instead of handing out samples, Khloud made people play for them.

Sampling is over. Earning is the new tasting.

Every world here uses a game mechanic to unlock the product — claw machines, dice, dispensers, scent rooms. The barrier raises desirability; the play raises memory.

Accidentally the best party of the weekend

A private party in SF — comfort food, a live set, a tightly packed crowd. When DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire joined the dance floor, it went everywhere.

The Clinker — wearable cheers

A small device that triggers a light response when two people tap it together. Anywhere across the festival, the social barrier drops a notch.

Phone-free styling lounge

Visitors handed over their devices and built a physical 'joy guide' — styling, customizing, assembling ideas in real life instead of saving them to a board.

Intimacy at scale — a laptop and YouTube

Bieber performed using only a laptop, playing early YouTube videos and live-searching tracks. Even at 75,000 people, intimacy is possible.

Hyperlocal food village

Skipped Coachella and Lolla. Partnered with Roots Picnic in Philadelphia and built a food village exclusively from hyperlocal restaurants and small food businesses.

Festival in-store, not in-field

London luxury retailer LN-CC partnered with a 5,000-capacity Croatian electronic festival — and brought the festival back to London for an in-store guest mix series.