Wake The Tiger, history and theming (+VIDEO)

A leisure and tourist attraction with some very peculiar characteristics recently opened its doors in the city of Bristol, UK. Globetrender sums it up perfectly: “an immersive, psychedelic wonderland that heralds a new era for the experience economy”. Or, in the words of the creators themselves, “we create raw, unbounded experiences that challenge and inspire us to transform the world”. There has never been a better example of the relationship between history and theming. So the best way to understand what Wake The Tiger, as it has been called, is about, is to look at the story it tells (beyond the selection of images), or, in other words, at the extent of its theming.

The experience begins as a journey whose starting point is the “marketing suite” of the Meridia Luxury Homes real estate company. However, visitors soon discover that the construction of the flats has been halted by an ancient tree that cannot be uprooted. The “celestial energy” flows to its roots and turns it into a portal between parallel worlds. Crossing the portal, travellers discover the world of Meridia, which integrates “an old abandoned factory, a time capsule of messages, theories and wild experiments”.

Indeed, Meridia was home to a group of alchemists and scientists, grouped into 4 guilds, who sought to restore harmony to the universe. Earth, Air, Water and Fire, the 4 guilds, specialised in different areas of research: The Natural World, Consciousness, The Cosmos and The Self. At this point, travellers must join one of these four guilds in order, once they have mastered their schools of thought, to discover the fifth element that will lead them to enlightenment.

As we can see, fantasy and mystery characterise the theming of Wake The Tiger, this “Amazement Park“, as its creators call it, as opposed to “amusement park”. Conceived by the creators of Boomtown Fair, the UK’s largest independent music festival, Wake The Tiger theme park offers an experiential experience, with different thematic areas, featuring “artwork, installations, narrative, soundscape, secret passageways and so much more”.

You can see a sample of their spaces here in this promotional video:

Or if you want to know more, you have information and testimonials from its creators in this other video: