Welcome to this month’s round-up of Extraordinary Experiences across all experience sectors and around the globe.
August is upon us and school’s out for summer. To celebrate, we’ve got a sizzling line-up of immersive experiences for you this month that range from the sublime to the downright scary. On the competitive socialising front, a playable version of hit TV show The Cube is a welcome new addition to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, while in Madrid groups of 12 can battle it out at BuzzAttack, a gameshow experience that feels like you’ve stepped onto a TV set.
Speaking of TV, a number of popular shows on the box have been given the immersive treatment this month. At the NEC in Birmingham you can do battle with the likes of Legend and Nitro in an IRL Gladiators Experience complete with epic challenges like The Wall and The Travelator. Fans of Peaky Blinders, meanwhile, can don their flat caps and head to London Bridge where they can enter the murky underworld of Thomas Shelby and his infamous gang.
If Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey floats your boat then Moyseion in Matera is worth a visit, as it’s launched a reimagining of Odysseus’s journey from Ithaca into the underworld. Not for the faint-hearted, in Nagasaki theme park Huis Ten Bosch has created a chilling escape room inspired by Netflix show Alice in Borderland, where players have to don bomb collars and have just 30 minutes to get out in one piece or risk their collars giving them an electric shock.
If more gentle Alice-themed experiences are your thing then you should book a ticket to board Alice’s Wonderland Express, a heritage steam train that will be chugging through Tunbridge Wells this month. Expect tooting whistles, billowing smoke, and lashings of cake. Petrol heads can get their kicks at the shiny new Evel Knievel Experience in Vegas, where you can take part in a death-defying virtual reality jump, or at The Outlap at the Dutch Grand Prix, where you’ll journey aboard a travelling dining room that moves directly through the circuit.
18. The Cube Chicago
Open now
Location: Chicago, US
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
Chicago-based gamers will be delighted to hear that a playable version of hit TV show The Cube has opened its first American site, a 25,000 square feet entertainment space on the city’s Magnificent Mile. Located at 600 North Michigan Avenue, the immersive attraction combines competitive socialising with top notch food and drink. Like on the game show, groups of four face seven interactive one- and two-player challenges featured on The Cube, which get progressively harder as they go, testing players’ physical and mental agility.
Players have to rely on their balance, memory, speed and judgment to win points and beat The Cube. After the game visitors can kick back and enjoy an F&B offering unique to the Chicago venue. Expect street food snacks, comfort food classics, pizza, buttermilk fried chicken, sarnies and burgers. It’s worth leaving room for dessert – we’ve got our eyes on the popcorn crème brûlée and a boozy option from the bespoke milkshake menu. Following successful launches in London and Manchester, The Cube joins The Hand & The Eye magic theatre, and the soon-to-open Candy Hall of Fame on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
17. Alice In Borderland Immersive Death Game
Opens: 27 August 2026
Location: Nagasaki, Japan
Experience Sector: Escape Room
Not to be confused with the Lewis Carroll classic, Japan’s largest theme park, Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki, has developed an escape room experience called Alice in Borderland: Immersive Death Game in which participants wear bomb collars that give electric shocks. Based on Japanese survival thriller Alice in Borderland, a popular Netflix series, the intense immersive experience riffs on the Jack of Hearts game in the show.
Inside the escape room you must take on the Heart challenge, which tests your emotional resilience. Set in a dystopian version of Tokyo, the TV show follows gamer Arisu who has to complete a series of deadly challenges based on the different suits in a pack of playing cards. Each player of the theme park version has to wear a bomb collar as they do in the Jack of Hearts game in the show. If you don’t complete the challenge in 30 minutes the bomb collar will give you an electric shock and start billowing with smoke.
Those brave enough to take part in this slightly unhinged experience have to sign an agreement prior to participating, which is off limits to under 15s and those with high blood pressure and pace makers. To play, theme park ticket holders need to sign up for a free same-day timeslot ticket on the Huis Ten Bosch website. Inspired by Nagasaki’s trade with the Netherlands, Huis Ten Bosch features traditional Dutch-style buildings and picturesque canals, transporting visitors to Holland.
16. Gladiators Experience
Open now until 6 September 2026
Location: Birmingham, UK
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
If you want to follow in the footsteps of Fire, Fury, Legend and Nitro, then hotfoot it to the NEC in Birmingham, where you can live out all of your gladiatorial dreams. For those who fancy their chances on legendary challenges from the hit TV show like The Wall and the Eliminator, the Gladiators Experience is a must. Currently enjoying its third revival – we fondly remember the days of Jet, Lightening and Wolf – fans of the show can test their physical and mental strength on some of the programme’s best-loved challenges.
Spanning a giant 10,000 square metres and open to players of all ages, among the trials you’ll be able to undertake are Hang Tough, Duel, The Wall, the gruelling Travelator, and The Eliminator. For those who want to build up to the go whistle, there’s a gladiator training facility and behind-the-scenes insights into the show. And if that wasn’t enough, superfans can book tickets for the Gladiators Live Tour, which will take place in the UK this winter, with stops in Liverpool, London, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham.
15. Candy Land Café
Open now until 4 October 2026
Location: San Diego, California
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
Sweet-toothed San Diego residents are in for a treat this month with the opening of the world’s first Candy Land Café, a sugar rush of an experience created by Hasbro and Bucket Listers. Based on the board game, fans can step into a real-life version of Candy Land through immersive sets, interactive experiences, and a themed menu. Running until early October, the pop-up invites candy fans to journey through themed environments inspired by the game, including King Kandy’s Castle and Jolly’s Gumdrop Mountains.
Offering photo opps aplenty, the immersive dining experience features winding paths, towering candy castles and activities for all ages. We like the sound of the DIY cookie-decorating station. On the food front the fast-casual menu specialises in comfort food with a sweet twist. Expect the likes of rainbow burgers, chocolate BBQ sliders, themed milkshakes, and a chocolate river fondue, alongside cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks. The brains behind the experience is Derek Berry of Bucket Listers, the man behind the Malibu Barbie Café.
14. BuzzAttack
Open now
Location: Madrid, Spain
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
August is a hot month for competitive socialising. If you’ve always fancied yourself as a game show pro then BuzzAttack in Madrid’s Chamberí district is the perfect place to test your skills. A sister site to BuzzAttack venues in London, Lille and Brisbane, the Spanish version offers a real-life, hour-long TV show experience for groups of 12 to compete in music, popular culture and general knowledge challenges, and games that test your reflexes. There’s even a wheel of fortune. Before the game starts participants have to choose three topics they want the questions to cover from a diverse range of subjects.
The experience begins in a small lounge filled with photos of iconic Spanish TV hosts, where you can load up on drinks and snacks before the competition kicks off. The main gaming room is kitted out with lecterns, spotlights, and a spinning wheel, and genuinely feels like you’re stepping onto a TV set. An on-trend AI host guides your gaming session, explaining the challenges and keeping track of the time. During the hour your pre-chosen topics show up among the questions, mixed in with the different rounds. Watch out for the WipeOut section of the game, where you need your wits about you to beat the clock.
13. Rippon Workhouse Museum
Open now
Location: Yorkshire, UK,
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
Allowing visitors to step back in time to the Victorian era, the Ripon Workhouse Museum in North Yorkshire has had a £2.8m revamp to turn it into a more immersive experience. While you will be spared having to bath in someone else’s water, you’ll be offered gruel to eat and might have to sweep the yard. One of Britain’s most complete surviving Victorian workhouses, the Ripon Workhouse Museum tells the story of the Victorian solution to poverty and homelessness in the UK, and asks visitors to walk in the workers’ footsteps.
More enjoyable activities include sewing, hunting for mice, exploring the meat cellar, and posing for a family portrait in workhouse uniforms. Designed so that you experience the atmosphere workers would have lived through in Victorian times, adding to the interactive element are museum volunteers who you’ll see baking bread and drying clothes through a mangle. As you enter the vagrants’ block you’ll hear the eerie sound of coughing. Inside you’re free to roam around, lock yourself in a vagrants’ cell, or pick oakum from old ropes.
12. Jelly Dreamscapes
Open now until 30 April 2027
Location: Los Angeles, US,
Experience Sector: Aquariums
The humble yet fascinating jellyfish is finally getting its moment in the sun at a dedicated gallery within the Aquarium of the Pacific in LA’s Long Beach. Home to one of the most diverse collections of sea jellies in America, Jelly Dreamscapes shines a light on the majestic marine invertebrates, letting us a little deeper into their mysterious underwater world. Adding to the immersive and ethereal nature of the experience, the creatures can be viewed alongside meditative lighting and dream-like soundscapes.
Visitors can learn about colourful jellyfish, sea nettles with free-flowing tentacles, and ctenophores that glow underwater, including the barrel jelly and the charmingly titled California sea gooseberry. Jelly fish fans can also discover the diversity of the curious invertebrates in a film that plays throughout the day in the aquarium’s great hall. The gallery reveals how the aquarium’s staff propagate, feed, and raise more than 40 different species of jellyfish in bespoke spaces designed for each stage of their life cycle.
11. Seven Abha
Opens: 5 August 2026
Location: Abha, Saudi Arabia
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
Saudi Arabia’s bold ambition to become a world-leading immersive entertainment specialist has gotten one step closer with the imminent opening of Seven Abha, the country’s first entertainment destination developed by Saudi Entertainment Ventures (Seven). It’s part of a $13bn plan to open 21 such entertainment Meccas across 14 cities around the country. Set to be inaugurated by Turki bin Talal Al Saud on 5 August, the Abha location has been designed to reflect the city’s natural and cultural identity.
Featuring interactive attractions, arcade games, meeting spaces, and retail and F&B experiences, highlights will include indoor golf courses, bowling lanes, cutting-edge cinemas, Hot Wheels-themed electric go-karting, thrill rides, and ‘edutainment’ centres. Seven has secured partnerships with big name entertainment giants including Mattel, Hasbro and Warner Bros. Discovery for the project. Among the other cities that will be home to Seven entertainment districts are: Riyadh, Kharj, Makkah, Jeddah, Taif, Dammam and Khobar.
10. Alice’s Wonderland Express
Opens: 29 August until 6 September 2026
Location: Tunbridge Wells, UK,
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
We’ve told you about the frankly terrifying Alice in Borderland experience launching in Nagasaki this month – where a failure to complete a 30-minute escape room results in an electric shock administered from a bomb collar. For fans of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, this far more gentle experience might be more your cup of tea. Chugging into the Spa Valley Railway in Tunbridge Wells this summer is heritage steam train Alice’s Wonderland Express. Described as a ‘delightfully chaotic, family-friendly adventure’, expect photo opps with your favourite characters, tooting whistles and billowing steam clouds.
Allowing Alice fans to step inside her curious world, the experience begins the moment you board at Tunbridge Wells West. From there you’re taken down the rabbit hole. The Queen of Hearts’ Royal Train has broken down and she’s not known for her patience, so it’s up to you, Alice, the White Rabbit, and the Mad Hatter to fix it before she arrives. Keeping things interactive, passengers are furnished with an activity booklet filled with riddles and puzzles to solve as the story unfolds. With each completed challenge you’ll earn Royal Railway Stamps. As is only right, a drink and a slice of cake is included with each ticket. Toot toot!
9. Bruce Springsteen Center For American Music
Opens now
Location: New Jersey, US
Experience Sector: Museums
It was only a matter of time before a museum dedicated to ‘The Boss’ opened its doors in his beloved homeland of New Jersey. Enter The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, a shiny new cultural centre at Monmouth University in Long Branch. Designed by CookFox Architects, the attraction tells the story not only of Bruce Springsteen, but of American music, while celebrating Springsteen’s work within that tradition. The multi-use space will be used for exhibitions, education, performance and research.
Spanning 30,000 square-feet, the building is home to exhibits on American music, Springsteen’s music, and the Springsteen archives, which include The Boss’s notebooks where he penned his lyrics, concert programmes, posters and ticket stubs. There’s also a 240-seater auditorium for concerts, lectures and video screenings, and a gallery space for rotating exhibitions. The museum element features an immersive concert experience, a hands-on rehearsal studio, and eight galleries filled with iconic photography and artefacts spanning Springsteen’s guitars, on-stage outfits, set lists, and alternate album covers.
8. Hiraki At Tivoli Gardens
Open: August 2026
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark,
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
Japanophiles are in luck this month as Copenhagen amusement park Tivoli Gardens is due to open a new Japan-themed area called Hikari, the largest themed development in the park’s history. Meaning ‘light’ in Japanese, the immersive space, which spans over 2,000 square metres, has been transformed from the park’s former Asia-inspired zone. Taking design cues from a vibrant Japanese streetscape, Hiraki features atmospheric lighting, landscaped gardens, traditional architecture, street food concepts, and Japanese art.
It’s also home to a pair of new attractions: family-friendly immersive experience Hotel Hikari and thrill ride Typhoon’s Eye, which isn’t for the faint-hearted. While you’re there don’t miss the chance to ride on The Demon, one of Tivoli Gardens’ epic roller coasters, which has undergone an extensive transformation as part of the recent revamp. Founded in 1843, Tivoli Gardens is one of Copenhagen’s most iconic cultural landmarks. It also happens to be one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.
7. House Of Dreamers
Open now
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
We could all use a healthy dose of dreamy escapism right now, and the shiny new House of Dreamers at Immerse LDN looks like it will deliver in spades. Following on from successful runs in Madrid, Milan and Paris, where it’s welcomed over two million blue sky thinkers, the concept has landed in London and takes visitors on a journey through 16 immersive rooms designed to reignite your sense of wonder. The brainchild of Italian designers Elena and Giulia Sella, founders of Postology, House of Dreamers encourages you to think big and keep your head in the clouds – in one room there’s a swing where you can play among them.
There’s also a room boasting a pink pool and a giant ball pit where you can unleash your inner child. Another features a light-projected waterfall hidden among glowing toadstools and giant daisies. Centred around a specific motivational message, each of the 16 rooms feature whimsical visuals and cutting-edge interactive elements. We love the sound of the AI-powered ‘Dream Machine’ that creates an image of you in your dream job. There’s also a digital scanner that brings your animal drawings to life so they can roam around in a fantastical forest, and interactive projections that conjure up starlight in response to touch. Don’t leave without swinging by the Dream Store to stock up on inspirational merch.
6. Evel Knievel Experience
Open now
Location: Las Vegas, US
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
If you feel the need for speed then the new Evel Knievel Experience in Las Vegas’s art district should be right up your street. Born Robert Craig Knievel in Montana in 1938, Evel Knievel was an iconic motorbike daredevil who achieved global fame in the ‘60s and ‘70s for performing death-defying ramp-to-ramp jumps while clad in star-spangled leather jumpsuits. Celebrating the American stunt performer and entertainer, the Evel Knievel Experience: An Interactive Museum of America’s Original Daredevil explores the life, legacy and cultural impact of the legend, and houses the largest collection of Evel Knievel artefacts on the planet.
The experience started life as the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas, and has been given a glitzy re-imagining for a Vegas audience. Inside you’ll find artefacts including Knievel’s red, white and blue jumpsuits, the motorbikes he did his death-defying stunts on, the Snake River Canyon Skycycle X-2, his Caesars Palace jump helmet, and the fully restored ‘Big Red’ Mack truck and trailer. On the immersive front visitors can take part in a 4D virtual reality jump, plan their own daring jump, and explore Knievel’s most famous crashes and injuries. As you’d expect, there’s also an Evel Knievel shop selling biker-themed merch and memorabilia.
5. The Outlap
Opens: 21-23 August 2026
Location: Zandvoort, The Netherlands
Experience Sector: Immersive Dining
Speaking of petrol heads, Formula 1 has joined forces with drinks giant Moët Hennessy to transform one of motorsport’s most symbolic moments – the journey from the garage to the starting grid – into an immersive experience for 12 lucky guests. Called The Out Lap, the hospitality concept takes guests on a journey aboard a travelling dining room that moves directly through the circuit. The experience unfolds across a bespoke route designed around each Grand Prix, stopping at the circuit’s most legendary locations.
At every stop, the story of the track comes to life through the memories of a former racing driver, whose personal perspective offers a unique window into the defining moments of the sport. Each chapter is interpreted through a culinary creation designed by some of the world’s leading chefs and paired with wines and spirits from the Moët Hennessy portfolio, creating an experience where gastronomy and racing history collide. Each edition of The Out Lap is inspired by its Grand Prix circuit and local culture. The experience, which kicked off at the Belgian GP and featured food by Yannick Alléno, will pop up at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort this month, then move on to the Italian and Spanish races.
4. Anish Kapoor At The Hayward Gallery
Open now until 18 October 2026
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Art
Famous for his large-scale public artworks, reflective mirrored surfaces, and deep monochromatic void forms that challenge perception and spatial boundaries, it’s lovely to see that the Hayward Gallery is once again shining a light on renowned British-Indian contemporary sculptor and installation artist Anish Kapoor. Running until October, this second major retrospective at the gallery (following on from his debut in 1998), is a mash up of Kapoor’s greatest hits. Expect concave mirrored surfaces that turn the world upside down, and giant sculptures slathered in crimson oil paint that look like bodies turned inside out.
Filling the entire building, many of the works press against the gallery walls and floors, or descend from the ceiling to create an uncanny sense of awe and wonder. Featuring works from across his career, look out for steel mirror sculptures that warp, distort and disorient; mysterious objects coated in Vantablack – the blackest known substance in the world that has extraordinary light-absorbing properties; and seemingly depthless voids opening within the gallery, drawing the viewer in with an uneasy sense of vertigo. Recent works on show include paintings and sculptures that highlight the fragility of human existence. Kapoor’s works do what all great art should do: they make you think and question what you’re seeing.
3. The Mind Of A Serial Killer
Open now until 15 January 2027
Location: Seattle, US
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
If you’re a true crime fan and wish you could do a deep dive into the minds of monsters like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, then this chilling experience will tickle your fancy. Masterminded by Exhibition Hub & Fever, The Mind of a Serial Killer is an immersive psychological exhibition that has been rolled out across North America. At Pacific Place in downtown Seattle, the show is framed through a regional lens. Blending psychology, investigative science, and cutting-edge immersive technology, the experience takes guests on a 90-minute journey through the history, psychology, and cultural impact of serial crime.
Formed of over 20 multi-sensory exhibits that recreate investigation spaces, the show features case files, psychological evaluations, hyper-realistic reconstructions, and documentary-style storytelling. Wannabe investigators can step into their shoes in a VR experience and find out how they identify patterns, develop profiles, analyse evidence, and work to better understand and prevent violent behaviour. Serving to educate as well as entertain, the exhibition considers the human impact of serial killer cases, the responsibility of storytelling, and the warning signs that can be obscured by ordinary appearances.
2. Nékyia – Odysseus In The Realm Of Shadows
Open now
Location: Matera, Italy
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey currently lighting up the silver screen, experiential Mecca Moyseion in Matera has created its own version of Homer’s epic tale. Called Nékyia – Odysseus in the Realm of Shadows, the 30-minute experience in the venue’s subterranean Water Sanctuary is inspired by Book XI of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus reaches the threshold of the world of the dead to consult the prophet Tiresias, and encounters the voice and presence of his mother Anticlea, who died during his long absence from Ithaca. Created by theatrical director Vincenzo Paolicelli, the experience took four months to develop.
Guests follow Odysseus on a slow descent through the darkness, take part in the handing over of the offerings used to summon the dead, and join a procession through the Sanctuary, accompanied by the beat of a live drum and an evocative light and soundscape. Visitors actively take part in the experience, metaphorically crossing the same threshold as Odysseus, who tries to embrace his dead mother but finds she vanishes before he can get to her. To return to Ithaca, Odysseus must accept this epic loss. Rather than a literal re-enactment of events, the experience translates Book XI of The Odyssey through space, body, voice and movement. It ends when visitors ascent from the subterranean lair and return to the light.
1. Peaky Blinders Underworld
Open now
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
Flat caps at the ready as iconic BBC series Peaky Blinders lands in London Bridge as an immersive experience that allows fans to feel like they’re living inside the show. Called Peaky Blinders: Underworld, the experience takes visitors through various themed environments, including Garrison Lane, The Bookies, Chinatown and The Small Heath Fairground. Produced by KMJ Entertainment in partnership with Banijay Rights, the action begins at the Garrison Tavern, a faithfully recreated post-WW1 pub and the Shelby’s favourite drinking den. It’s the perfect spot to enjoy a tumbler or two of whisky before entering the underworld.
Blending interactive gameplay with actor-led experiences across a range of immersive areas inspired by the show, inside the underworld your encounter with various characters will draw you deeper into a shadowy realm of Thomas Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy in the series) and his infamous gang, testing shifting loyalties and tactical alliances. You’ll only be allowed to join the gang if you can prove you’ve got what it takes to be one of the Peaky Blinders. Don’t leave without getting your hands on some coveted Underworld merch in the gift shop. You can also return to the free to enter Garrison Tavern to take in a live music performance.
