There are very few experiences better than a day full of live musical performances. One way to improve upon it is to add some grub and a bit of responsible imbibing, though!
The Start of a New Harvest
Sydney-based Falcona contacted us here at Inflatable Anything about a very unique opportunity. One of Australia’s hottest DJs, Hot Dub Time Machine, was launching a wine, food, and music festival called Wine Machine. The client wanted us to make an inflatable wine bottle with some interesting features to really make it, and the event, larger than life.
We were ecstatic to be asked to help this annual event hit the ground running!
The Process
We are very used to creating scaled-up replica inflatables, but this situation called for something a bit different. The design was overall a standard wine bottle, but the colouring and the label were created specifically to go along with the details for the series of 6 day-long festivals.
This custom inflatable bottle was to be a focal point of Wine Machine, so it really needed to be done up just right.
Instead of just a cool, on-theme inflatable wine bottle, our creation was to act as a kind of signpost, letting everyone know exactly what was going on within these Australian wine regions. It had to be big. It had to be bold. It had to be attractive. It had to be attention-grabbing!
Wine Not?
After a very brief back-and-forth, and only one revision later, our team was entrusted to make this inflatable bottle come to life by any means necessary. With a very tight deadline, we knew we had to get right on it!
With this kind of shape, and for its purposes, typically we would create a unit that could be sealed off sans a clunky blower, but the standard material used for these just wasn’t good enough, so we went back to square one. We use sewn-polyester panels for all our arches and tents, and that’s what we ended up utilising to construct our durable inflatable wine bottle.
The Call for a Finer Vintage
A huge benefit of our standard polyester panels is that you can achieve a much more defined shape, which is exactly what the client insisted on. Not only would polyester form the bottle neck more seamlessly, but it would also better represent the details of the inflatable wine bottle’s lip, because the material is generally very resistant to stretching and puckering. To accommodate the 6 events throughout Oz, polyester is also very lightweight and easy to transport.
The client desired 2 other features for their custom inflatable wine bottle that had to be adjusted for, but of course, we were all too happy to incorporate for them!
These particular festivals lasted from just after noon until 10 p.m., so we were tasked with making sure our design would keep the chardy vibes going even after sundown. What better way to do that than add a small touch of sparkle? We installed LED lighting on the inside of the unit, to line up perfectly with acts such as the festival’s namesake.
Although all of our creations are bespoke and custom-made, we do usually follow certain protocols when it comes to inflatables by product. The inflatable bottles we produced in the past were manufactured to measure 4 metres high. However, when we mentioned this unit was expected to be larger than life, we meant it quite literally! Standing at a whopping 8 metres tall, with the width adjusted to scale, this inflatable wine bottle was so big and heavy (35 kg!) that it had to be tied down with ropes just to stay properly upright!
One reason we tend to use polyester, say, for our arches, is because it’s an easy material to print on because there is very little space in between the polyester fibres, especially logos, which will look pretty ace for a while because polyester is generally more UV-/fade-resistant. If you’ll remember, the client wanted an improvised wine logo on this promotional bottle, and it had to be perfect, so we used a full surface print to really make it pop! It’s possible we succeeded with how many pictures from the event featured this inflatable wine bottle in the backdrop!
Just a Splash of Magic
Now that our team at Inflatable Anything had a very solid plan, and with the client’s blessing, it was time to put in a little elbow grease. Our team typically requires 2-3 weeks to manufacture bespoke inflatables, and though the inflatable wine bottle missed out on a few events, it added a fantastic backdrop to the ones it didn’t.
Contact us directly to add a hint of excitement to your next event!
