This weekend holds a special celebration for Otherworld Philly.
The city’s own mixed-reality playground opened in the Northeast in 2023, and to celebrate 2 years in business, the venue will host Jester Fest—a week-long activation chock-full of events and specials.
The fun kicks off this Saturday, July 12, and will run at the concept through Sunday, July 20. The week will be sprinkled with yoga sessions, artist talks, sound baths, live concerts and a new limited-time puzzle. Saturday, July 19 will also hold a birthday bash featuring local DJs, activities, food trucks, and more. Those 21+ can stick around that evening for the official afterparty as well with a lineup of local artists playing all night.
The venue holds 55 unique rooms and installations, which visitors can explore in a self-guided tour. The concept is the brainchild of 100 artists, modelers, animators, creative technologists, fabricators and more led by founder Jordan Renda. Otherworld’s first location opened in Columbus, Ohio, but for its second iteration, Renda always had his eye on the City of Brotherly Love.
“I was born in Pennsylvania and have family in the area and for a long time thought of opening up an exhibit here. It’s a major East Coast city with tons of great arts and culture, but nothing quite like Otherworld,” he explained at the time of opening. “People tend to drive from up to a couple [of] hours away, so we like to be somewhere centrally located with other museums, art and entertainment experiences nearby so people can make a weekend getaway out of their visit if they’d like.”
The Philadelphia location is different from the original and brings the concept to the community on a larger scale. Otherworld partnered with Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, who have experience producing location-based entertainment venues, for its Philadelphia location.
This particular venue encourages guests to freely explore and interact at their own pace with each section of the building. Visitors will find installations from local artists like Big Howl, Adam Crawford, Mz Icar, Evan Lovett, Sue Moerder, Kristin Scholz, Justin Gellar and David Guinn.
“The whole concept is left open for interpretation and there are a couple of different paths that you can follow,” says Renda. “There is room for people to insert their theories about what’s going on. Generally, you won’t complete the whole experience in one visit… your experience with the gameplay element could be very different from anyone else’s.”
Earlier this year, the concept also began hosting live concerts, with the first being EDM veteran Mr. Carmack. In general, Otherworld Philly is for all ages, and Renda notes that daytimes tend to see a lot of families, while the evenings shift and the experience can become more of a date night or crowd activity.
For Jester Fest in particular, anyone who participates in an event also gets full access to the virtual playground venue. During this anniversary celebration, yoga session and sound bath tickets come out to be $45, while artists talks with figures like local creative Sue Moerder and technical designer Justin “JG” Geller are free with admission. Tickets for the afterparty on July 19 run for $35.
A full schedule of events and times for Jester Fest can be found online.
Otherworld Philly is open every day except Tuesdays with tickets beginning at $34.99 and is located at 2500 Grant Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. For more information, operating hours, and to purchase tickets, visit OtherworldPhila.com or follow them on Instagram at @otherworld.philly
