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Large-Scale
Large-Scale
Stages
Stages

Skyfest with Desperados

Skyfest with Desperados

elrow
SPA
2017
  • Skyfest with Desperados

  • Skyfest with Desperados

Project Credits

Concept & Brand Platform: Desperados “wild experimentation in music and parties”

  • Event Partner & Show Producer: elrow overall show design, staging, performers and crowd experience on the ground

  • Creative & Strategy Agencies: We Are Pi (lead creative) & Jack Morton (brand experience & production strategy)

  • Location: La Seu (Catalonia), in the foothills of the Pyrenees (secret outdoor site chosen for safety, landscape and sky visibility)

  • Date & Format: 16 September 2017, 16:00–02:00 - one‑day, one‑night experimental festival with live audience and global digital reach

  • Key Artists (Hot‑Air Balloon Electronic Light Orchestra): Jackmaster, Honey Dijon, Paco Osuna, Eats Everything and others playing high above the crowd in seven hot‑air balloons synced to the light show

  • Audience & Reach:

    • ~1,500–2,000 people on site at the secret location

    • 250 specially invited influencers as part of a 2‑day build‑up program

    • 67M+ online video views

    • 729,900+ engagements on #skyfest / #desperados

    • 250k+ views on elrow’s own SkyFest coverage

Partner Brands
Highlighted

With Desperados, We Are Pi, and Jack Morton, we created the world’s first hot-air balloon electronic orchestra. Seven DJs playing from glowing balloons over a hidden Catalan valley while thousands danced below and millions watched online.

Project Description

When Desperados came to us, they didn’t ask for another sponsorship logo, they asked for help turning an impossible idea into a real‑world party and a global piece of content.

SkyFest was the answer, a one‑off event in a secret location (La Seu d’Urgell) where we produced, with our usual elrow insanity and know‑how, the world’s first Hot‑Air Balloon Electronic Light Orchestra. Seven hot‑air balloons rising into the night with Jackmaster, Honey Dijon, Paco Osuna, Eats Everything and more playing from the baskets, all synced to a choreographed light show while a crowd of around 1,500–2,000 people danced on the ground beneath the Pyrenees.

From a business and production point of view, it was one of the riskiest collaborations we’ve ever taken on: six months of pre‑campaign to select and activate 250 influencers, a two‑day lead‑up experience with workshops and interactive installations to build anticipation, and a single night where everything depended on weather, wind speed and aviation rules.

Ff the breeze had shifted, the balloons simply would not have flown and the whole idea would have collapsed.

But the bet paid off: SkyFest won Grand Prix and multiple awards at the Campaign Event Awards, became Desperados’ most watched and shared content ever with more than 67 million views and positioned both them and us as credible voices in global party culture by proving that we could literally remix the rules of what a “festival” looks like.

For us, beyond the numbers, it was another proof that when a brand is willing to share risk (not just buy media) and trust us with something genuinely wild, we can build an experience that blows the minds of partygoers, DJs and marketers all at once.

Project Credits

Concept & Brand Platform: Desperados “wild experimentation in music and parties”

  • Event Partner & Show Producer: elrow overall show design, staging, performers and crowd experience on the ground

  • Creative & Strategy Agencies: We Are Pi (lead creative) & Jack Morton (brand experience & production strategy)

  • Location: La Seu (Catalonia), in the foothills of the Pyrenees (secret outdoor site chosen for safety, landscape and sky visibility)

  • Date & Format: 16 September 2017, 16:00–02:00 - one‑day, one‑night experimental festival with live audience and global digital reach

  • Key Artists (Hot‑Air Balloon Electronic Light Orchestra): Jackmaster, Honey Dijon, Paco Osuna, Eats Everything and others playing high above the crowd in seven hot‑air balloons synced to the light show

  • Audience & Reach:

    • ~1,500–2,000 people on site at the secret location

    • 250 specially invited influencers as part of a 2‑day build‑up program

    • 67M+ online video views

    • 729,900+ engagements on #skyfest / #desperados

    • 250k+ views on elrow’s own SkyFest coverage

Partner Brands
Highlighted

With Desperados, We Are Pi, and Jack Morton, we created the world’s first hot-air balloon electronic orchestra. Seven DJs playing from glowing balloons over a hidden Catalan valley while thousands danced below and millions watched online.

Project Description

When Desperados came to us, they didn’t ask for another sponsorship logo, they asked for help turning an impossible idea into a real‑world party and a global piece of content.

SkyFest was the answer, a one‑off event in a secret location (La Seu d’Urgell) where we produced, with our usual elrow insanity and know‑how, the world’s first Hot‑Air Balloon Electronic Light Orchestra. Seven hot‑air balloons rising into the night with Jackmaster, Honey Dijon, Paco Osuna, Eats Everything and more playing from the baskets, all synced to a choreographed light show while a crowd of around 1,500–2,000 people danced on the ground beneath the Pyrenees.

From a business and production point of view, it was one of the riskiest collaborations we’ve ever taken on: six months of pre‑campaign to select and activate 250 influencers, a two‑day lead‑up experience with workshops and interactive installations to build anticipation, and a single night where everything depended on weather, wind speed and aviation rules.

Ff the breeze had shifted, the balloons simply would not have flown and the whole idea would have collapsed.

But the bet paid off: SkyFest won Grand Prix and multiple awards at the Campaign Event Awards, became Desperados’ most watched and shared content ever with more than 67 million views and positioned both them and us as credible voices in global party culture by proving that we could literally remix the rules of what a “festival” looks like.

For us, beyond the numbers, it was another proof that when a brand is willing to share risk (not just buy media) and trust us with something genuinely wild, we can build an experience that blows the minds of partygoers, DJs and marketers all at once.

At some point you stop looking at the stage and realise the real show is hanging above your head tiny silhouettes moving inside floating orbs of light while the valley beats like a single heart below.

Not a stage in a secret field, a whole orchestra of hot‑air balloons turning the sky into the ceiling of the rave.

Not a stage in a secret field, a whole orchestra of hot‑air balloons turning the sky into the ceiling of the rave.

A six‑month campaign, two days of experiments and one night where the wind had the final word.

Most parties worry about rain, this one had to worry about air currents, flight paths and what happens if the sky says “not tonight”.

By sunrise there was no orchestra left in the sky, only a quiet valley and the feeling that, for one night, the clouds had learned how to dance with us.