Dancing in the Sky, Photo: Lance Gerber

Each year, music festivals worldwide present their eagerly awaited programs in vibrant, immersive themed landscapes where music, design, architecture, and technology intersect. For 2024, we’ve gathered some of the most striking spaces and installations that truly embody the festival spirit:


The Other | Burning Man 2024

The Other

Chosen as the 2024 Pavilion for the Burning Man, which takes place every August to September in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, “The Other” by Jen Lewin invites participants on a whimsical journey of exploration and play. This curved structure, formed by stairways and ramps, eschews the idea of a fixed destination, instead offering an interactive path discovery that leads visitors to vantage points and the surprising spaces that lay in between.

The Other

The concept for The Other is built around eight distinct tentacles, each with its own independent perspective. Rather than fixating on a singular center, the concept invites participants to navigate and explore each area individually, whereas for those who want to embark on this journey of exploration together, there is a central negative space beneath the structure, an area for gathering and congregation, complete with benches and seating. This multi-layered aspect of the structure fosters continuous interaction between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Lighting design and light animations for the temporary structure were created by Mark Slee.

Dancing in the Sky | Coachella 2024

Dancing in the Sky, Photo: Lance Gerber

For Coachella, the annual music and arts festival held in Indio, California each April since 1999, Morag Myerscough has created a special installation that defines a 38x38-meter space within the event venue. Inspired by the cityscape of Indio, this installation draws visitors in through several gateways and surrounds them with vibrantly colored structures, some reaching heights of up to 18 meters.

Dancing in the Sky, Photo: Lance Gerber

With her use of simple geometric shapes and primary colors that frame the sky, Myerscough creates a fantastical environment straight out of a fairy tale. At night, the installation comes alive with its own glow, forming a magical meeting place amidst the darkness of the festival. Through her design, Myerscough aims to foster a sense of belonging and freedom, offering each visitor a unique and personal experience.

Ring | Horst Arts & Music 2024

Ring

Designed by architecture studio Piovenefabi for this year’s edition of the Horst Arts & Music Festival, “Ring” is a glowing crown floating above the visitors. First held in 2014 at Horst Castle in Belgium and relocated to Vilvoorde’s Asiat Park in 2019, the festival’s latest edition features this open, decagonal structure set atop a wider dance floor framed by graffiti-covered walls—a space of hidden urbanity that has been reopened to the public on occasion of the festival. Built out of the metal beams repurposed from the disassembling of the pre-existing enclosure, the structure supports a sound wall as well as the lighting and fog machines to augment the stage below. Once the festival has ended, the dance floor will be transformed into a sports ground for future events, accommodating a running track, basketball court, mini football field, seats, and play areas for other events at Asiat Park.

Silver Hayes Pavilion | Glastonbury Festival 2024

Silver Hayes Pavilion

At the world’s largest open-air festival, Glastonbury, the Silver Hayes Pavilion has been clad this year in a biomaterial made from seaweed by Bristol-based biodesign startup re:right design to demonstrate how sets can be constructed without plastic. Having been outfitted with prefabricated mycelium insulation panels by the same team last year, the pavilion now spotlights a backyard-compostable bioplastic made from seaweed.

Developed by re:right design co-founder and biodesigner Leksi Kostur, the fossil-free material is dyed, carved, and laser-cut to explore its creative potential, in shapes and forms inspired by the flora and fauna of tidal ecosystems. The pavilion, highlighting the feasibility of innovative biomaterials, also hosted film screenings focused on the climate crisis and sustainability.

These globally renowned music festivals, blending art, architecture, and technology, continue to serve as platforms for cutting-edge design and innovation, cementing their place at the forefront of creative exploration in the years to come.