Wefox Summer Jam: a wall where every guest joins in

For the Summer Jam at the Zenner by Treptower Park, Wefox needed a programme item where guests do not just watch. We brought a mobile graffiti wall and gave every guest a canvas of their own to take home.

The task

A summer party has a problem every planner knows: the stage is running, the buffet is running, and still from nine o'clock everyone stands in the same three huddles. Wefox wanted a point in the evening that guests go to of their own accord.

The brief was a programme item that works without registration, needs no prior knowledge and does not stop the evening. Not a workshop with a start time but something that stays open the whole time.

The execution

We set up a mobile wall on the grounds and sprayed a Wefox throw-up on a Berlin underground train onto it. With us the wall goes on the trailer, is set up on site and taken away again after the event; the venue needs no surface of its own for it.

In parallel a canvas of their own lay ready for every guest. Whoever wanted to watch first watched; whoever wanted to picked up a can. After a few hours we opened up the large wall, for practised sprayers as much as for people putting on a cap for the first time.

The result

Every person went home with a picture of their own, and the wall was occupied all evening as a photo motif.

For you as the planner that means: a programme item that runs by itself, needs no host and is still on the guests' phones the next day. Concept, material, crew, setup and teardown come from one source; you book one date and not seven suppliers.

Frequently asked questions about this project

What happens after the party to a graffiti wall on the grounds?

The wall leaves with us, the pictures stay with the guests. At the Wefox Summer Jam at the Zenner by Treptower Park stood a mobile graffiti wall with a Wefox throw-up on a Berlin underground train. It came on the trailer, was set up on site and taken away again after the evening.

For you as the planner that is the difference to a fixed installation. You negotiate nothing with the venue about wall surfaces, you need no approval for a permanent intervention, and nobody has to dismantle or paint over anything afterwards. With a rented venue exactly this point is otherwise the longest line in the contract. What remains lies with the guests instead: every person took a painted canvas of their own home. A programme item that carries a whole evening and has vanished from the grounds without a trace the next morning gives you an argument in the coordination with the operator that a stage or a food truck does not provide.

Is such a station worth it if only some of the guests join in?

Yes, because the wall also works for those who only watch. At the Summer Jam it was occupied all evening as a photo motif, including by guests who never picked up a can. We assigned nobody and kept no attendance list.

That is the calculation you have to make before a summer party. A programme item with registration reaches the people who register, and that number is never fixed beforehand. A wall that stands open reaches everyone who walks past it, and the rest is decided on the evening itself. Whoever wanted to look first looked. Whoever wanted to picked up a can, and next to it a canvas of their own lay ready for every guest. The station needs no host for that and stops the running of the evening at no point. So you do not have to know beforehand how many will join in to know that the item holds up.

When do you open up the large wall for the guests?

At the Wefox Summer Jam only after a few hours, once the throw-up was done. Until then the wall ran as live art to watch, after that as a hands-on surface. Neither phase needed a slot of its own in the schedule.

For the evening planning that is exactly the point. The first phase draws attention because someone is working there whom you can watch at work, and that works even with guests who are only just arriving. The second phase draws the people who watched before and now want to themselves. The handover happens when the evening is ready for it, not when a schedule dictates it. Practised sprayers then came to the opened wall as much as people putting on a cap for the first time. So for this programme item you reserve no time in the agenda but a surface on the grounds, and you have to coordinate it with no other item of the evening.