Immersive Pop-Up Event: Smallfoot Yeti Village

Welcome witches and warlocks,

I had the great pleasure of attending the Smallfoot Yeti Village and I figured I would offer up some thoughts for my fellow pop-up enthusiasts. To best describe the experience, I will turn to the official press release:

“Yeti Village is a fully immersive, family-friendly experience. Enjoy a yeti-sized walk-through adventure, featuring a snowball pit and 20-foot spiral slide, plus exciting photo ops and other themed activities to celebrate the fun and wonder of the film.”

Okay, let me get this out of the way first; I loved this experience. From the moment I entered to the second I left, there was a charm about the entire thing that kept me engaged the whole time. I grinned like an idiot for the themed photo ops, played the games like a big kid, and marveled at the sheer scale of what they had built.

In fact, the size of this pop-up is what most people are likely to notice first as the entire experience comprises two stories of fun. We begin by ascending above the luminescent clouds to the realm of the yetis, where we will find most of the photo ops. This space packs a lot into a small footprint without giving away what will happen when we enter the village proper. To get to the lower floor, kids can ride a slide while adults will take a boring trek down the stairs before reaching the massive, main room. I cannot stress enough how huge this area was and how many incredible details it included.

In fact, the buildings comprising this room each had their own special thing going on inside. Whether it be music coming from the Yeti Shack or the displays inside the Yeti Museum, there was plenty to catch the eye while one strolled around. Wandering outside the main buildings there were plenty of little scenes to take in from simple newspaper stands to a goat eating out of the trash can. While discovering these little scenes are sure to take up some time, it is the activities included in the experience that will keep families entertained.

As far as activities go, in addition to the aforementioned photo ops and slide they also had skeeball, a knockdown game, a ball pit, karaoke, tic tac toe, and a coloring area. Given that list, one can easily see that there was plenty to keep any kid or kid at heart entertained for a solid few hours. There was a simple charm to the things on offer that kept me around for much longer than I anticipated, and I did not even have any kids with me at the time.

All in all, this pop-up is a home run that is sure to delight families and kids at heart. While the movie may not be out yet, if it has half the charm of this experience then it is sure to be a home run. Fans of pop-ups, immersive experiences, or just families looking for something to do should definitely give this a look.

SMALLFOOT arrives in theaters September 28. The Smallfoot Yeti Village will run from August 12th – September 14th. Tickets are free and can be obtained HERE.