On behalf of Fabulous Indonesia, during the first week of April 2021, Nestlé Lactogrow – Grow Happy Fantasea Drive Thru took place in the parking area of the Phinisi Point Mall in Makassar, Indonesia. This was the first ever drive thru tunnel “edutainment” theme park in Indonesia, and the first ever family entertainment concept during the pandemic. This event offered Indonesian families the excitement of an undersea experience alongside an educational experience about nutrition and health through interactive laser games, projections, and audial and visual entertainment.The event took place from the 2nd to the 4th of April, 2021, with strict Covid safety and health measurements and protocols taking place for the activity. The tunnel-based drive thru event held a capacity of 300 cars per day and ran from 8am-8pm.
Visitors to Grow Happy FantaSea experienced an underwater concept while driving through nearly 100m of tunnel structures. With more than 24 projectors in these tunnels, children could learn about healthy habits through a story based on a whale cub facing unhealthy habits. The children were given lasers to point at interactive projections, alongside experiencing audial and visual entertainment inside the tunnels’ structures. This presented families the opportunity to experience a new form of entertainment while educating children on nutrition and spending quality time together in a new an interesting way during the pandemic.
Alongside Abox on audio and video projection, NBEE on tunnel & set decoration, and HaluuWorld on the creative team, Backbone handled technical production and was the Covid protocol task force. For a total of 3 show days, the event took 9 days to load in along with 2 media and KOL days. When it was all over, there were a total of 2 days for load-out.
Of course, productions pose their own set of challenges, this time being no exception. On March 28th, the 2021 Makassar cathedral bombing happened just 1 km from our site. Although we lost a day of setup, we are lucky our team was safe from the terror act. Along with this, Severe Tropical Cyclone Seroja hit Indonesia bringing historic flooding and landslides to the country. As for this production, the cyclone hit 3 times, 3 days in a row collapsing several tents/structures. This also caused the first day of the show on April 2nd to be canceled as the heavy storm hit our site in the morning.
Fortunately, the event was able to go on for two days, resulting in a new form of entertaining and educational experiences for Indonesian families, who found new ways to experience entertainment and engagement together. This left families with not only newfound knowledge, but unforgettable moments through a unique experience while remaining safely in their cars for the event. Despite the challenges, we are proud to be a part of it!