NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Synchronized holiday light and music, 100,000 square foot, pop-up Jingle Beat lights up the Nashville Fairgrounds through December 31, offering activities for all ages.
"We're all kind of brought together through a rhythm and movement and music and something that everyone can share in is this idea of the beat and we're kind of taking something familiar like Jingle Bells and putting a new spin on it with the Jingle Beat. The whole idea of this is thinking about a holiday experience in a different way," explained Eamotion CEO Eric Anderson.
Eamotion production company first created an experience for guests during COVID as a drive-thru event. The 2022 Jingle Beat is a fully immersive experience that includes a real ice rink.
"We've got multiple bars in every area with custom cocktails that are made for each world. We've got food...Great for families to come earlier in the evening. It's really family-friendly. There's all kinds of stuff for kids to do. We've got swings that as you swing on them, bells are activated. We've got mushroom drums that when you play them, they make drum noises," explained Anderson. "And then later in the evening...it's really transformed into a party in a lot of ways and great craft cocktails."
The creators include both visual and musical artists local to Nashville.
"Most people don't know about all these the artists behind the artists that jobs, the careers, and the creative paths that exist when it comes to building these large scale shows with the technology and and all of the video contents and the lighting programming and then the custom build for everything," explained Anderson. "There's a huge group of creatives that does that. In Nashville, we luckily have a really great resource for that and we have a really great community that builds these shows."
"The soundtrack, we've done that collaboratively with local artists to create the music," he said. "There's all these interactive elements and those have to be programmed. It's all programmed to make it feel like a seamless experience with the lighting the music and all of the visual effects."
The creators' vision was inspired by wondering where Santa got his magic.
"Santa ends up discovering this frequency that allows him to travel to other universes. And the universe's that he ends up going to are the three that we've recreated here: So we've got the Crystal Caves, which is ruled by the Crystal Queen and this is an ice cave. The whole concept of it is to explore the Crystal Caves. Then we have the Electric Evergreens which is Helios — he is the patron spirit there. And he has this solar punk, futuristic technology world that's meant to be this living botanical garden and then we have Santaland, which is where DJ Chris Crunkle throws his party, the theme where there is 'celebrate' and that's where the big celebration happens."
"I think that there's not a lot of new holiday experiences that exist and I think a lot of times when you go to like these driving lights shows or any of the light shows, it's kind of a lot of the same thing," explained Anderson. "Especially for, I think, a lot of the millennial generation, which I love who is coming of age and having children...there's not a lot of things that you can go do with your kids that you really enjoy as well and multiple generations do."
Guests should plan for a 60 to 90-minute visit.
Tickets are available for purchase on Jingle Beat's website.
