Words by Maria Wang

Coachella 2017 may have impressed its festival-goers with a stacked-as lineup, but it was the festival’s massive 360-degree sensory experience ‘Chrysalis‘ that really wowed attendees the most.

The creative brain child of Obscura Digital, ‘Chrysalis‘ made for the world’s largest visual installation within a projection-mapped geodesic dome. Crowds of 500 people at a time would max out on bean-bag chairs in the planetarium-styled Antarctic Dome, ready for an audio-visual immersion backed by 108 speakers and 15 projectors.

The virtual reality trip opens with a “Shamanistic rite-of-passage ritual” before proceeding into an 8-minute psychedelic journey, full of cubist landscapes, pulsating geometric shapes, giant neon caterpillars and alien landings.

Joshua Pipic, Creative Director of Obscura Digital, wanted the kaleidoscopic digital show to bring to Coachella exactly what it was missing and “give the audience something beyond their expectations of what the festival would be about”. As open fires weren’t allowed at the festival, the team “started with the idea of campers gathering around a fire together in the wilderness, and embarking on this psychedelic experience after that.”

Take a trip to Coachella via the ‘Chrysalis‘ videos below… how do you rate it? Should more festivals start including immersive art experiences such as this?