Welcome to this month’s round-up of Extraordinary Experiences across all experience sectors and around the globe.
September has arrived and we’re feeling the back to school vibes. But just because the mercury may be dipping doesn’t mean that this month’s line-up of experiences is anything other than red hot. Formula One fans can get their fix at the global touring F1 exhibition, which has made a pitstop in Singapore, or head to the new Karts District in Sydney to race against their mates IRL.
If music is more your thing then the opening of Elevation Sky Park – San Francisco’s answer to The Cube in Las Vegas – should be on your radar. The entertainment hub launches with Pier Play, a one-day festival headlined by BLOND:ISH. Over in London, the Ministry of Sound is marking its 35th birthday with an immersive fine dining experience inspired by the evolution of house music. Expect banging beats and Michelin-starred twists on Chicago deep dish pizza.
There are also plenty of opportunities for immersive learning this month. At the shiny new Shenzhen Natural History Museum in China you can explore eight themed exhibition halls spanning 4.6 billion years of history, from the universe’s origins to the emergence of dinosaurs. Speaking of which, at the Natural History Museum in London the Jurassic reptiles that ruled the oceans are given their moment in the sun via a series of interactive exhibits.
Two sizzling new experiences launch in Singapore this month. One is dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and features staged crime scenes and clues that are revealed under UV light. The other is a blues-soaked immersive theatre experience inspired by the film Sinners set in 1932 Mississippi. We end our round-up highlighting the launch of the late, great Dolly Parton’s long-awaited SongTeller Hotel and Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum in Nashville – the perfect place to pay tribute to one of the music industry’s brightest and most enduring stars.
18. Jurassic Oceans: Monsters Of The Deep
Open now until 3 January 2027
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Learning
You may know a T-rex from a Triceratops, but what about the Jurassic reptiles that rose to dominance under water? If you’re curious for a deep dive then head to the Natural History Museum in London and check out its latest show: Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep. Taking dino fans on an epic journey through ancient seas, the exhibition sheds light on the fearsome underwater creatures that lived millions of years ago, with exhibits including razor-toothed marine reptiles, gnarly-toothed pliosaurs, marine crocodiles, and perfectly preserved ammonites accompanied by accessible facts from the museum’s palaeontologists.
Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, among the specimens on show are shark skin, a gigantic ichthyosaurs – a speedy, dolphin-like predator – and a cast of an ichthyosaur skull. These sea predators could grow to up to 25 metres long and had huge eyes and a keen sense of smell to help them hunt underwater. Look out for the plesiosaurs, whose distinctive long neck and four flippers haven’t been seen before or since. You’ll also learn about the mosasaur, the T-rex of the sea, who, with its double-jointed jaw, could swallow a fish whole. Among the exhibits is a mosasaur jaw and tooth dating back 70m years, and a cast of its skull.
17. F1 Exhibition
Open now until 4 October 2026
Location: Singapore
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
Following on from successful runs in London, Melbourne and Madrid, the global F1 Exhibition has made its latest pit stop in Singapore, where it’s currently parked up and wowing visitors at Gardens by the Bay. Charting over seven decades of Formula 1 history into one mega immersive experience, the exhibition includes everything from race machines and heated rivalries to a tribute to Singapore’s place on the F1 calendar; the circuit that gave the sport its first-ever night race. Expect iconic cars, cinematic storytelling, and epic interactive displays.
Split across seven immersive zones, the journey begins with a walk through Formula 1’s biggest moments before jumping into the technology, engineering and the rivalries that shaped the sport. Look out for Jenson Button‘s 2003 BAR Honda 005, and Sebastian Vettel‘s 2011 Red Bull RB7 – the car that claimed victory at the Singapore Grand Prix. You can also learn about F1 mechanics, get up close to rare race suits, helmets and memorabilia, then get behind the wheel in a racing simulator modelled after the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
16. The Magic Of Disney Animation
Opens: 14 September 2026
Location: Los Angeles, US
Experience Sector: Themed Attractions
Honouring the incredible legacy of Disney animation, this month Disney World will open a space dedicated to the art of animation at its Hollywood Studios. Called The Magic of Disney Animation, the new attraction is housed in a building inspired by the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California, complete with Mickey’s iconic sorcerer’s hat. Inside you can get stuck into four unique experiences: Drawn to Wonderland, Off the Page, Olaf Draws, and the Once Upon A Studio Theater, where you can enjoy screenings of the short film.
Drawn to Wonderland is an indoor playground inspired by the original Alice in Wonderland concept art by Disney Legend Mary Blair featuring spaces themed around the Mad Hatter’s house, the Queen of Hearts’ rose garden, and the Cheshire Cat’s Tulgey Wood. Off the Page, meanwhile, shows how the key stages of the animation process are brought to life through encounters with the likes of Mulan and Rapunzel. At Olaf Draws you can learn how to drawn one of nine Disney characters with an Olaf audio-animatronic figure voiced by Josh Gad.
15. Forest Of Time
Open now
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
New shopping mall and entertainment complex Happitat in Bangkok has just launched Forest of Time, a large-scale, multi-user interactive experience masterminded by Barcelona-based creative technology hub, BoraBora Studios. Taking over the space’s Grand Stairs, Forest of Time’s digital display evolves into a dynamic, interactive ecosystem that encourages visitors to actively influence and modify their environment in real time. You can join the forest by scanning a QR code on your smart phone, which generates a unique digital footprint. You then need to collaborate with others to restore a lost ecosystem, awaken Ancient Guardians, and uncover endangered and extinct Southeast Asian wildlife.
Animals start off as hidden fragments of light in the forest and become visible through collective interaction. When each new animal is discovered you can learn scientific details about the species, including its conservation or extinction status, and its natural history. BoraBora Studios worked on the design, narrative universe, and technical implementation of the experience. Created using Unreal and Ventuz, the system enables multiple visitors to participate at once, with the forest responding as audiences work together to identify species and rebuild the ecosystem.
14. Karts District
Open now
Location: Sydney, Australia
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
Competitive socialising just ramped up a gear with the launch of Karts District in Sydney, a high-speed world where real racing and gameplay meets augmented and virtual reality. The world-first, next-generation, immersive racing precinct opens this month at Greenwood Plaza. Designed by Fever for players of all skill levels, Karts District delivers a high-energy environment where speed, strategy and competition unite. With real karts, real tracks and immersive digital gameplay layered into every race, the experience transforms players from spectators into active participants inside a living video game.
Adding a nostalgic twist, players can activate classic arcade-inspired features including interactive ‘power-ups’, where collecting coins triggers a burst of speed on the track. Beyond racing it’s also home to a slew of high energy VR and gaming activations including X-Space – a free-roam VR arena; Beat Hero: an immersive VR simulator; Space Ride – a futuristic, six seat VR ‘cinema pod’ that transports players through space-travel adventures using VR and motion simulation effects; and Flying Cinema – a dynamic double-seat VR activation with 360 degree rotations, rollercoaster-style motion effects and high definition 4K visuals.
13. Gorillaz House Of Kong
Open now until 28 September 2026
Location: New York, US
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment
Hot on the heels of successful runs in London and Downtown L.A., Damon Albarn’s animated band Gorillaz will take on Manhattan this month. Offering fans an audio-visual deep dive into their colourful, cartoon-fuelled world, House of Kong – the home of the band – will take up residency at the Agger Fish Building in Brooklyn. Running throughout September, House of Kong explores the past, present and future of the Gorillaz crew and was created in collaboration with Jamie Hewlett, Damon Albarn and Eleven Management. Their Big Apple residency has been timed to coincide with their North American tour, which includes a night at Madison Square Garden.
Masterminded by creative director Stephen Gallagher and his studio SWEAR, rather than a band retrospective, the experience is more of an audio-visual art installation that offers a peek behind the curtain into the genre-defying universe of Murdoc Niccals, 2D, Russel Hobbs and Noodle. From their 2000 debut, Tomorrow Comes Today, to the band’s most ground-breaking virtual eras and global success across eight albums, including collaborations with Grace Jones, Elton John and Bad Bunny, House of Kong charts a legacy of musical misadventure. More than just a retrospective, it’s a fully immersive experience inviting visitors to explore the Gorillaz universe from inside the band’s legendary base, Kong Studios.
12. Punch Drunk Persephone Screenings
Opens: 25-27 September 2026
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Theatre
If you can’t get enough of everything that immersive theatre company Punchdrunk does then you’ll want to be part of this. To mark the third anniversary of the final performances of The Burnt City, Punchdrunk is hosting a series of exclusive screening of Persephone, a film of the original production as it was performed three years ago. Return to the labyrinth through Persephone’s eyes. As she journeys between Troy and Mycenae, every encounter reveals another thread of The Burnt City, binding together a story of memory, longing and fate.
Whether you witnessed it IRL or are discovering it for the first time, this is a rare chance to enjoy the story at the heart of The Burnt City, and step into the underworld one final time. The film will open with a special red carpet premiere screening on the original set of The Burnt City at One Cartridge Place in Woolwich on 25 September, which includes an exclusive post-screening conversation with the creative team behind The Burnt City. There will then be three further screenings of the production on 26 September and 27 September.
11. Dragonfly Jet
Open now
Location: Antalya, Turkey
Experience Sector: Water Parks, Themed Attractions
If you like your water rides hard and fast then this newbie at Land of Legends in Antalya might ring your bell. Created by water attractions specialist WhiteWater, the Dragonfly Jet water slide is the first in the world to feature a Helix Twist, which changes your perception of motion, orientation, and gravity. Its twisting flume profile integrates with WhiteWater’s Master Blaster water coaster and Topspin open spiral drop in a ride sequence that brings together uphill blasts, high-banking turns, and an optical illusion within a single attraction.
While most water slides reply on great heights and high speeds to deliver their thrills, the Helix Twist uses geometry to make users feel like the slide is rotating around them. The flume remains still, but its twisting profile creates a dizzying feeling of rising, falling, and turning. The ride starts with a circular flume before moving onto the twisting section. As the profile changes and the slide becomes faster, the surface seems to expand, contract, and shift around the inner tube, evoking a disorienting sense of changing direction and orientation. The nature of the ride encourages repeat goes so users can work out the secrets behind it.
10. Lucas Museum Of Narrative Art
Opens: 22 September 2026
Location: Los Angeles, US
Experience Sector: Museums
You’re no one in showbiz these days if you don’t have your own museum. Following on from the recent launch of Bruce Springsteen’s Center for American Music in New Jersey comes the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA’s Exposition Park. Costing a whopping US$1 billion to create, the space was founded by Hollywood director George Lucas and American entrepreneur Mellody Hobson. Designed by MAD Architects’ founder, Ma Yansong, it’s being billed as the world’s first institution dedicated to the exploration of narrative art.
Housed in a 300,000-square-foot space on an 11-acre campus, the museum includes 35 galleries across 100,000 square feet, alongside two theatres, community spaces, a library, the Skywalker Grill restaurant, a café and a gift shop. Dedicated to illustrated storytelling, its permanent collection contains over 40,000 works spanning comic art to children’s book illustrations by artists such as Winsor McCay, Alison Bechdel, Norman Rockwell, Beatrix Potter and Mexican icon Frida Kahlo, and photographs by Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange.
The museum is also home to the Lucas Archives, a compendium of models, props, concept art, and costumes from Lucas’ filmmaking career. After all that art and culture you’ll want to swing by the Skywalker Grill to refuel. Boasting panoramic views of Los Angeles, the space, inspired by Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, will serve the likes of Dungeness crab cakes, honey miso glazed salmon, chicken Milanese, and Wagyu burgers alongside a curated drinks menu.
9. A Study In Red: The Official Sherlock Holmes Experience
Open now
Location: Singapore
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
English detective Sherlock Holmes is the latest fictional character to be given the immersive treatment. He’s upped sticks from his London base of 221B Baker Street and has taken to the streets of Singapore’s Bugis district to crack his latest case. Called A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experience, it’s the first officially licensed Sherlock Holmes experience in the world and forms part of the Singapore Night Festival. The brainchild of local gaming studio Hidden, the immersive game is designed to be played in real life, and will soon be moving to London. Open to players age 13 plus, the live action game takes around 90-minutes to complete.
Teams of up to five players are recruited as detectives and have to follow 16 reference points around Bugis Town to piece together the crime. Players can use their smartphones to scan evidence, investigate augmented reality crime scenes, enter virtual environments, receive calls from Sherlock Holmes characters, and dig through CCTV footage. There are also physical crime scenes around Bugis featuring staged bodies, bloodied walls, and clues that are revealed under UV light. The experience is inspired by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887, but it uses its Bugis setting within the story. Its creators pored over historical archives to weave it into the narrative.
8. Shenzhen Natural History Museum
Open now
Location: Shenzhen, China
Experience Sector: Museums, immersive Learning
One of the world’s largest natural history museums and the biggest in South China has opened its doors to the public. Designed by the 3XN, B+H Architects, and Zhubo Design consortium, the Shenzhen Natural History Museum spans over 100,000 square meters. Designed both a civic landscape and a museum, the area integrates architecture, ecology, and public spaces into a cohesive experience featuring a walkable public roof open to all. The flowing geological space has a granite façade and carved openings. Inside are a series of cave-like passages, terraces, and framed viewing points.
Eight themed exhibition halls take visitors on a journey through 4.6 billion years of history, from the universe’s origins to the emergence of dinosaurs and human evolution. The experience concludes with the ecological systems shaping Shenzhen and the wider world. Expect animal, plant, mineral, and fossil specimens, large-scale installations and multimedia environments that link natural history stories with the landscapes of South China. Atelier Brückner and Museum Studio developed the scenography for the galleries, using curved walls and vertical structures to create immersive environments that animate the narrative thread.
7. Escape The Internet Demo Night
Opens: 3 September 2026
Location: New York, US
Experience Sector: Competitive Socialising
Originally developed as a multiplayer game for cinemas, Escape the Internet was masterminded by film director Lucas Rizzotto as a new genre of gaming that shatters the fourth wall and brings audience interaction to the next level. Keen for the experience to be rolled out, on 3 September an Escape the Internet Demo Night will land in New York’s Flatiron District for one night only. In the original experience strangers are trapped on a mysterious island and must work together with their phones to escape the AI apocalypse.
Amid wild interactive set pieces players uncover the secrets of those around them and have to evade monsters and move fast, because all participants are infected with terminal brainrot and can be possessed by an algorithmic demon at any moment, meaning the future of the entire internet is at stake. At the NYC Demo Night players will road test brand-new Escape the Internet games and acts at the founders’ HQ. According to Rizzotto: “It’ll be wild. It will be experimental. Maybe slightly illegal. One thing is for certain: things will break, and it will be funny when they do.”
6. Last Orders: Ministry Of Sound
Opens: 9-10 September 2026
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Music, Immersive Dining
Celebrating its 35th birthday in style, the OG of nightclubs, London’s Ministry of Sound, is hosting a two-night immersive dining experience at its base in Elephant & Castle that pairs house music with Michelin-starred cuisine. Taking place on 9th and 10th September, Last Orders will transform the club’s iconic dancefloor into an immersive setting where guests will enjoy a five-course tasting menu alongside cocktail pairings and a soundtrack charting the evolution of house music. The experience unites Michelin-starred chef Brad Carter and legendary house DJ Ralph Lawson. We’ve been promised there might be a kebab in the mix.
Carter’s menu takes cues from the cities and late-night food cultures that have helped shape the house music genre, with dishes influenced by Chicago, New York and Berlin. Lawson’s soundtrack, meanwhile, will guide diners through three epic decades of house music. Beginning with a modern take on Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza, the menu continues with inventive interpretations of classic late-night favourites, reflecting the global scenes that have influenced dance music since the Ministry of Sound opened its doors in 1991. The Last Orders series will continue with future editions featuring a rotating line-up of chefs and DJs.
5. A Sky Full Of Hope
Open now
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Experience Sector: Immersive Art
American artist Janet Echelman has created a giant ‘living sculpture’ that’s brightening the streets of one of Frankfurt’s busiest public squares. Famous for her floating aerial sculptures that hang over city streets and public spaces, turning air into architecture, Echelman’s German creation is called A Sky Full of Hope. Commissioned as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026, it features a constantly shifting net-like web of fibre, colour, and light created with an integrated LED system that turns the fibres luminous after dark.
Created using centuries-old knotting techniques mixed with 21st century digital modelling, tiny currents of air alter the net’s shape and density, so the sculpture appears to expand, contract, and rearrange itself overhead. Adding to the multi-sensory nature of the piece, the sculpture is accompanied by a contemplative neoclassical soundscape by Parviz Mir-Ali called ‘Sounds of Hope’. The music and the artwork work in harmony, the composition enhancing the effect of the sculpture, which is constantly shifting with the wind and the changing light.
The result is a shared dialogue of sound, colour and motion that encourages viewers to pause and reflect. “I like to leave the design to nature, allowing it to take over the choreography, and to the people who encounter the work, which can be experienced as freely as the air we breathe,” Echelman said. The semi-permanent sculpture will remain over Konstablerwache until the summer of 2029, where ‘Hope Sessions’ of live music, lectures and performing arts experiences will take place.
4. Elevation Sky Park
Opens: 19 September 2026
Location: San Francisco, US
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment, Live Events
We’ve been excited about this one for a while. San Francisco’s equivalent of The Cube in Las Vegas will roar into life at the city’s Dogpatch neighbourhood this month. Called Elevation Sky Park, the waterfront multi-sensory playground will host live concerts, transformative art, movie screenings and events. Located at Pier 70, it features three, 360-degree geodesic projection domes and a pyramid able to house 800 people. The project is part of San Francisco’s effort to create new opportunities for residents, artists and local businesses.
The venue will open in style on 19 September with the Bay Area debut of Pier Play, a one-day festival headlined by BLOND:ISH. The musical line-up will span Afro House, organic house and Latin-influenced electronic music, with cameos from Nico de Andrea, Darco, MALAS and Admiral. Backed by Elevation XR and Brookfield Properties, in addition to music and film, the venue will host health and wellness events. The park is designed to accommodate up to 2,500 revellers, with the domes ranging in capacity from 150 to 750 guests.
3. Creative Intelligence
Opens: 11-13 September 2026
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Immersive Learning
If you’re interested in how AI is reshaping everything from art to technology then head down to London’s Southbank Centre this month, where a three-day event will take you on an AI deep dive spanning art, performance, music, free demos, debate, play and experimentation. Called Creative Intelligence, the event will explore what comes next for creativity, art, technology, science and design. A celebration of art, imagination and technology, the event, curated with PACT – Planetary Art Culture Technology – kicks off with the Creative Intelligence Summit: a day of exploration into the world-changing innovations of creative entrepreneurs.
The summit includes talks from artists and thinkers working in diverse fields spanning beauty, quantum computing and venture capital for artist products, expanding out to explore planetary-scale systems and art where nature is the protagonist. The day begins with lectures from artists and directors at the vanguard of fictional worlds and visual culture. Speakers include K Allado-McDowell, Sougwen Chung, Alex Estorick, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Jordan Hemingway, Anab Jain, Xin Liu and Jenn Nkiru. The event wraps with music demos and installations from Peckham Digital and deep listening with Holly Herndon.
2. Sinners Live
Opens: 5-6 September 2026
Location: Singapore
Experience Sector: Immersive Theatre
Ryan Coogler’s blues-soaked period horror Sinners swept up at awards season. Now the atmospheric film that follows twin brothers in the American South who have to defend their community and juke joint from a horde of vampires, has been turned into an immersive theatre experience in Singapore. Held at Little Island Brewing Co, Sinners: Live invites you to turn back the clock and step into 1932 Mississippi. Phones are taken when you enter the immersive environment where music plays a pivotal role in the story. Set across two simultaneous productions, you can choose between Remmick’s Story or hanging out at the Juke Joint.
The latter transports you to Smoke and Stack Moore’s bustling lumber mill as opening-night celebrations unfold to the sounds of Delta blues before events spiral into something darker. Remmick’s Story, meanwhile, unfolds outdoors, following Remmick and his clan through an eerie evening of Irish folk songs, seduction and a march towards the Juke Joint. Both performances happen in tandem, meaning no two nights are the same. Lasting two hours, the experience is for over 18s and period costumes are encouraged. Between the scenes there’s the chance to chow down on a curated menu of Southern-inspired food and drinks.
1. Dolly’s Life Of Many Colors Museum & SongTeller Hotel
Opens: 14 September 2026
Location: Nashville, US
Experience Sector: Immersive Entertainment, Museums
What better way to honour country music legend Dolly Parton, who passed away on 25 August aged 80, than by taking a trip to her new Nashville hotel and museum. Housed under one roof, the SongTeller Hotel and Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum both open in downtown Nashville this month, celebrating the life and legacy of Parton’s extraordinary output. The hotel, which boasts 245 rooms and suites, including the Six Sisters Suite dedicated to Dolly’s five sisters, promises an immersive experience with Southern-style charm. It’s also home to two live music venues: Parton’s Live and Jolene’s on the top floor, where you can enjoy craft cocktails and small plates alongside live music performances.
“I’ve always dreamed of being able to create something here in Music City and I know we’ve found the perfect addition to the city I call home,” Parton said last year when the news dropped. The museum is home to the largest exhibition dedicated to Parton to date. Occupying the third floor of the hotel and spanning more than 20,000 square feet, the venue explores Parton’s 60-year career across music, film, TV and philanthropy, and features sections dedicated to Parton’s Imagination Library, her life on the road, her iconic outfits, and her songwriting technique, along with a Hall of Fame uniting her countless chart-toppers. A large flagship store showcases Dolly’s official branded merchandise, while a jewel box-like boutique inside the museum sells limited-edition treasures and curated collections.
Inside you can relive Parton’s rags to rhinestones story from her early country music stardom to global acclaim. In a space as vibrant as the songstress herself, guests are taken on the road, behind the scenes, on set and backstage during Dolly’s most iconic moments via cutting-edge tech. “This museum is a place where folks can see my journey through my own eyes – every colour, every story, and every dream that brought me here,” Parton said. It’s a fitting tribute to an inspirational woman who transcended music and gave so much back to the world through her songs, philanthropy and raw honesty. Dolly, we will always love you.
