3 Things That Made This Year’s Crystal Palace Festival a Success

The hottest day of the year, Central London, thousands of festival-goers, and our third year working on Crystal Palace Festival. 

We’ve done the neon, we’ve done the dried flowers, and we’ve done the classic festival ribbons.

So this year, it was time to turn up the shine and go full disco fever.

Here are three of our favourite creations that helped make this year’s festival a showstopper.

1. Fringe Arch Backdrops

We took our much-loved arch backdrop frames and gave them a completely new lease of life, covering them in layers of shiny silver fringing.

The result? A simple structure transformed into something that caught the light, moved in the breeze and instantly felt like a celebration.

And because there’s no such thing as too much disco, we added another disco ball using our lampshade hanger.

The hanging basket you can see? That’s actually a rescued, broken disco ball that we couldn’t bear to throw away. A little creativity and it became another part of the installation.

This one definitely got people talking, with plenty of “oohs”, “wows” and “that’s so cool!” from festival-goers. Which, naturally, is exactly what we want!

2. Naked Tipi Areas

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective.

Rather than completely dressing the tipis, we kept them relatively stripped back and used the structures to create defined areas for different uses, then we added just enough disco magic to make them feel special.

A little sparkle in the ceiling, reclaimed wooden benches and recycled fabric covers brought texture and personality without overwhelming the spaces.

It was a great example of how you don’t need to fill every inch of a space to make an impact.

3. The Disco Ball Hanging Backdrop

This is another simple yet effective joy. 

Comprising of a freestanding wooden frame and a selection of hanging and glistening disco balls, this one looked fantastic when the sun caught it into the evening! It also brought a little interest to the lounge area behind, offering a hint of disco without feeling too much.

Fun fact:  this frame was rescued from a wedding where it had previously been used as a crisp display! 

We love giving existing pieces a new purpose, and this was a perfect example.

Rather than something being used once and forgotten about, a little imagination gave it another life, this time in the middle of a festival in Crystal Palace.

So, what made this year’s festival a success?

For us, it was the combination of shine, creativity and a willingness to reuse what we already had - because we don’t always need something completely new to create something exciting!

Sometimes you just need to look at an old piece differently and question, “What else could we do with this?”. This is exactly how we think, and how we manage to adapt the same structures and frames to create something new and exciting for our clients, year on year. 

To find out more about how we can bring your next event to lide, get in touch with our team.

If you’re planning an event and want to create something that feels completely unique to your space, your guests and your brand, we’d love to help.

From big statement installations to clever ways of giving existing pieces a new lease of life, let’s make something brilliant together.

Get in touch with us to start your next event designprojec