Welcome to Spirit Lake!

Suwannee Hulaween celebrates its 10th anniversary by unveiling Spirit Lake’s immersive art programming for the first time.

Hulaween’s coveted Spirit Lake is heralded as one of the leading immersive art experiences across American festivals, brimming with talented sculptors, fire/metal workers, painters, thespians, craftsmen, and lighting designers.

Spirit Lake’s offerings are typically kept secret ahead of the festival, but Hulaween has revealed its programming in honor of its decade milestone.?

The festival will feature ten new installations for the 10th anniversary.

Suwannee Hulaween will celebrate its tenth anniversary from Thursday, October 26 – Sunday, October 29, 2023, returning home to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida. As one of the last truly independent, large-scale music festivals thriving amongst today’s corporatized concert landscape and selling out its last five events, Hulaween will commemorate a decade of success with one of the most exciting editions yet.

Hulaween’s coveted Spirit Lake is heralded as one of the leading immersive art experiences across American festivals, brimming with talented sculptors, fire/metal workers, painters, thespians, and lighting designers. Attendees can revel in lakefront projection mapping, hypnotizing light shows, interactive installations with visual and performance art, and catch performances at Spirit Lake’s four stages.

Spirit Lake has unveiled a comprehensive list of art programming for the first time in Hulaween’s history to celebrate the decade milestone. While the festival would typically keep all art programming a secret for attendees until they arrived on-site, this year, each artist and art collective will be credited across the festival app, website, onsite signage, and more.?

Several Spirit Lake classics will be returning for Hulaween’s 2023 edition, including the highly-anticipated daily projection mapping from professionals Jasper & and Shelby Mosher.?

Hulaween fan-favorite and highly recognized art stage concept Incendia from Cory Glenn will return to once again ignite the dancefloor. As one of the stages of Spirit Lake, Incendia’s unique design utilizes a proprietary fire-capturing technique to create an illuminating glow that provides an unparalleled ambiance for the crowd.

Lost Creations?unveils their latest evolution of their legendary House of Lost, an ethereal sanctuary free from religious confines. Within its walls, a refuge for the untamed spirit, honoring freedom of expression, identity, and sexuality.

The infamous Frick Frack Black Jack led by Marvelous Marv will once again return to Hulaween as the no cash, no limit blackjack game. The Frick Frack brand has grown to land across various festivals across the United States and continues to provide an enthralling and quirky experience for attendees.

The Mural Maze collection originated at the debut edition of Hulaween and has continued to grow in size over the past decade. Sprawling across 15,000 square feet, this installation provides an immersive experience for attendees and exposure and growth for visual artists. This year’s Mural Maze will be led by Ania Amador. This year The Mural Maze is expanding to include lounge and workshop space Deliberate Creation Station, The Gallery displaying artwork, and the Hydration Station.

Paul Kuhn aka Twelve Limbs Art Studio will bring back the highly-captured large-scale sculptural pieces including the Witch, Ogres, The Ferryman, and more.

Duende Builds will bring back the sustainability-built Birdhouses to Hulaween which are crafted from locally harvested natural materials to create something organically beautiful for the festival’s vast art installation display.

Additional returning installations include Thomas Dambo’s The Spider, Efren Rebugio Jr & Chris Robertson’s Haunted House, Ashley Spero’s Spero Totems, and Spirit Lake deco design by RüTS.?

This year will feature a selection of 10 brand-new art installations and concepts that will contribute to making this the largest Spirit Lake ever.?

Tyler Schrader will debut a double-sided, interactive, wooden LED sculpture known as The Cosmic Portal which will feature 5,000 LEDs with the other side projection-mapped. It is equipped with a device that detects electrical variations of plants, translating them into vibrations, audio, and visual experiences that encourage attendees to reconnect with nature through the use of technology.

Considered ambassadors of Mexico abroad, the monumental Alebrijes are created by mixing pictorial and sculptural elements of contemporary art by the artist Emanuel Zarate Ortiz. These breathtaking installations are meant to honor tales of traditional Mexican storytelling, and inspire spiritually expansive messages to the Hulaween attendees.

Essi Rhodes’ installation titled Chatterpillars will consist of two human-size caterpillars meant to inspire a change in perspective. Fans can interact with the installation by talking into the caterpillar’s mouth so that a friend or stranger on the other side can hear their thoughts, creating a sort of childhood playground nostalgia.??

In an effort to recycle those old style tube televisions, Save the TV’s Irregular Scheduled Programming will utilize these electronics to breathe life into a new display that strives to make people think twice before discarding junk and old electronics.?

Subloominal & Voxeleyes will showcase interactive bioluminescent mushrooms in their Bioshroom display which are created by growing and foraging real mushrooms that are 3D scanned and digitally sculpted to be 3D printed. The artists then add LEDs and proximity sensors that will lend a unique visual component to Spirit Lake for Hulaween patrons.

Fans can look forward to more installations such as Daniel Shields’ UV reactive Portal Prism, Charlie BlackCat Smith’s flame-infused interactive steel sculpture, The Fleeble Flobbler, Tyson Ayers’ The Sound Cave, Gnome Village Minis from John Grillo, a unique Campground Stage Design from Hannah Miller and Justin Bolognino, and brand design + illustration from Young & Sick.

Projection mapping at Spirit Lake at Hulaween 2022

At the helm of this new era for Spirit Lake is the new Creative Director, Justin Bolognino who is the CEO and Founder of META. The company creates live, multi-sensory experiences that use technology, design, and storytelling to ignite the human senses and spirit. Bolognino‘s previous work consists of designing immersive artistic experiences in collaboration with artists such as Skrillex, Phish, Questlove, Porter Robinson, Ti?sto, and many more. In addition to working with musical acts, META also has various brand clients such as Google, Spotify, Samsung, Vimeo, and more. Gearing up for his first Hulaween edition as Spirit Lake’s Creative Director, Bolognino has fortified the classic installations that fans have come to know and love as well as curating 10 additional installations and experiences.?

Spirit Lake has become such a vital part of Hulaween’s identity with its staggering list of art installations and activities that keep fans mesmerized year after year.?

Massive Thanks to our incredible production staff!! These are the true heros of Spirit Lake:

Erin Muir – Department Head

Bryan Roberts – Production Manager

Skye Losey – Operations Manager

Amanda May Martin – Build Lead

Anthony Ranieri – Builder

Brennan Gerke – Scenic Production Manager

Caleb Rupers – Technical Production Manager

Cameron Krow – Site Ops

Carlye Cannon – Scenic Design

Colin Bartholomew – Camp Host

Derek Sidney Lipscomb – Builder

Eric Allison – Quartermaster

Eric Kendzior – Procurement

Gio Castillo – Builder

Graham White – Special Build

Gwen McCaw – Lighting Tech

Jack Hufford – Site Ops

Jason Berg –?Lighting Tech

Jason Lakota Edwards- Craftsman

Jenny Bartlett – Admin

Jill Gooch – Production Coordinator

Jonathan Hamilton – Craftsman

Joo Lee – Builder

Judy Cusick – Office Manager

Kari Polcyn – Scenic Design

Ken Cook – Power

Kristie Andrews – Admin

Kyle Kretz – Builder

Mark Hendrickson – Builder

Maxwell Edison – Artist Camping Coordinator

Mckenna Carter – Volunteer Coordinator

Melanie Howell – Vendor Liaison

Natalie Lindsay – Vendor Coordinator

Nick Tice – Build Lead

Paleka Pinard – Rigging

Paul Kuhn – Artist/Craftsman

Randall Erno – Fire Safety

Rebecca Carter – Lighting Tech

Rüts – Artist Coordinator + Show Design

Schuylar Fairris – Craftsmen

Scott Bitterli – BoH Lead

Scott Martin – Runner

Tessa Register – Scenic Design

Travis Donovan – Heavy Equipment

Tyler Drumm – Fire Safety

Zackary Jon Slade Umbarger – Operator