Like lots of people this summer, Christina Bentley devoured Stranger Things, Netflix’s moreish mashup of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King about a gang of 1980s latchkey kids investigating an unsettling mystery. Unlike most people, though, Bentley then launched a touring club night inspired by the show. “The aesthetic, the props, the soundtrack: it all seemed perfect for a good party,” she says.
Strangest Things is the latest in a spate of events that attempt to bring TV shows to life. It offers the cluttered iconography of the word-of-mouth hit – think fairy lights and Chopper bikes, plus lots of Eggo waffles – while spinning period-appropriate 80s vinyl and Austin-based synth duo Survive’s pulsing soundtrack. If you have a fantasy of living inside the beguilingly retro world of the show – the sort of immersion currently being explored in HBO’s sinful theme park Westworld – it’s probably the closest you’re going to get unless you get cast in season two. That’s not least because club-goers have been turning up dressed as their favourite characters. “Barb is very popular,” says Bentley. “But one woman in Liverpool shaved her head to come as Eleven.”
It also feels like the logical next step in a world where comic conventions and cosplay have gone mainstream, and the ongoing success of Secret Cinema suggests we want to immerse ourselves in the pop culture we love rather than just passively absorb it on screens. “It gives fans the opportunity to be a part of the show or movie, not just buy the T-shirt,” says Bentley. In an age of digital entertainment, it’s a real-life experience that you can have with your friends … and hundreds of like-minded people.”
It helps if the source material has a certain obsessional quality. Orchestral concerts featuring video game music, such as the recent live score of The Legend Of Zelda, are sprouting up like Mario mushrooms. There’s a Breaking Bad-themed RV parked in east London where punters can “cook” exotic cocktails. And the trend only looks likely to expand: HBO has already announced a Game Of Thrones “concert experience” for the US next year. Meanwhile, London’s annual Twin Peaks festival is back on 12 November, and it’s only a matter of time before a rash of other Lynchian lock-ins spring up to herald the new series next year.
By Halloween, Strangest Things will have been staged in nine cities across the UK, with more nights planned for 2018. Perhaps a gun-slinging Westworld shindig might not be that far in the future after all.
The Strangest Things tour begins at Sheffield Leadmill, Thu; touring to Monday 31 October; visit facebook.com/StrangestThingsClub
