The Return of the Company Festival (But Done Right This Time)
For a few years, private company festivals were everywhere.
In the post-lockdown release, it felt like every ambitious team wanted a field, a tipi, and a DJ. There were bunting-lined tents, food vans, glitter paint stations, and plenty of late-night dancing.
But just as quickly as they rose, they seemed to disappear. Budgets tightened, the novelty wore thin, and organisers quietly dropped the idea.
Yet here’s the truth: the company festival was never the problem.
The problem was how it was done.
Now, as the way we gather at work changes again — with firms moving away from noisy parties and toward reflective, experience-led offsites — festivals are poised to make a comeback. Not as throwaway spectacles, but as cultural landmarks. Done right, they can become some of the most powerful, memorable gatherings in a company’s story.
This is what we at Elsewhere call Private Festivals 2.0.
What Went Wrong Last Time
To understand where festivals are going, it’s worth revisiting why they dipped in the first place.
1. They were treated as novelty parties.
For many companies, a private festival was simply a bigger, splashier version of the office party: tents, music, bar tab. Great fun in the moment, but nothing that really carried meaning. Once the novelty wore off, enthusiasm did too.
2. They were exhausting to organise.
Most were stitched together through agencies or internal event teams. That meant juggling venues, suppliers, entertainment, catering, insurance, transport, and cleanup — a heavy lift for HR or Ops. The effort outweighed the benefit, so many firms never repeated them.
3. They lacked depth.
A field with music and food can be enjoyable. But without intention, ritual, or reflection, it risks being forgettable. A festival should leave teams changed — with new energy, stories, and alignment. That piece was missing.
Why the Festival Model Still Matters
Despite the dip, the festival format still holds huge potential for modern teams. In fact, it offers exactly what many organisations are now craving.
Scale with intimacy. Festivals work beautifully for groups of 50 to 500 — that sweet spot where a team is too big for a single dinner table, but small enough to feel like a community.
Play + reflection in one frame. Unlike a hotel or conference centre, a festival site can host parallel zones: a reflective tent here, a creative lab there, a stage for celebration later. The design of the space itself invites a different kind of gathering.
Cultural memory. Ask someone about their favourite work gathering, and you’ll rarely hear “that conference room in Reading.” But you might hear about a night under canvas, a values mural painted together, or a dawn singalong by a firepit. Festivals stick in memory.
Brand signalling. Externally, they show ambition and creativity. Internally, they remind teams they’re part of something alive and worth belonging to.
The form isn’t the problem. The framing is.
The Shift: From Party to Cultural Landmark
Here’s the pivot:
Old framing: Festival = company blowout.
New framing: Festival = The Festival of Us.
Instead of renting a field for entertainment, a company festival should be designed as a rite of passage — a way to mark transitions, honour achievements, and embody shared values.
Think less “one-off bash,” more living story of the company in celebration form.
What a Modern Company Festival Looks Like
So what does Elsewhere’s Private Festivals 2.0 model include? Here are some of the design principles:
1. Anchored in Time and Meaning
Summer Solstice Festival → marking the midpoint of the year with reflection and energy.
IPO / Anniversary Festival → a cultural landmark, not just a celebration.
Values Launch Festival → when a leadership team rewrites company values, the wider team embody them in playful, creative form.
These moments are seasonal and symbolic, not random dates in the diary.
2. Curated Zones with Purpose
A true festival has flow and variety. We design sites with intentional zones:
Reflection Tent → guided journaling, coaching, gratitude rituals.
Creativity Dome → team challenges like Spraycans at Dawn or Tea Heist Festival Edition.
Wellness Meadow → yoga, sound baths, breathwork.
Celebration Stage → acoustic music by day, DJ crescendo by night.
Food as Theatre → chef-led banquets, fire-pit cooking, long-table dining.
Each space holds its own rhythm, together creating a field of belonging and play.
3. Rituals and Storytelling
Festivals thrive on rituals that move beyond entertainment into meaning:
Opening circle → “Why we gather.”
Gratitude wall → teammates leave notes of thanks.
Values mural → painted live by the group.
Fire circle → quiet reflection before the music rises.
Closing ceremony → send people home with symbolic artefacts (booklets, art, songs).
These rituals turn a festival into a memory landmark.
4. Experiences that Stick
Generic activities fade fast. Our challenges are built to become stories teams retell:
Tea Heist Festival Edition → playful, logic-driven storytelling around a whimsical plot.
Murder Under the Stars → immersive role-play woven into a fireside banquet.
Spaced Out Geodome → futuristic puzzle challenge under light projections.
Spraycans at Dawn (Festival Scale) → collaborative graffiti artwork on giant boards, tied to company values.
These aren’t side-shows. They are the culture in action.
5. Scale with Intention
Boutique Festival (50–120 people): A single curated field, intimate and immersive. Perfect for startups and scale-ups.
Flagship Festival (200–500 people): A campus-style layout with parallel zones. Ideal for bigger firms who want to bring everyone together in one cultural statement.
Either way, the experience is held as a field — stewarded, not left to chance.
Why Now Is the Moment
So why are we saying festivals are ready to return?
The novelty burn-off has passed. Teams are ready to revisit festivals, but with more meaning.
Budgets are back. After a few years of caution, companies are again investing in people and culture.
The party model is fading. Traditional Christmas parties feel outdated; leaders are seeking alternatives.
Elsewhere has matured. We’ve built the operational backbone: venues, partners, challenges, facilitators. Festivals no longer need to be DIY chaos — they can be elegant, held, and repeatable.
The field is open again. This time, the model is ready.
The Elsewhere Difference
Here’s why Elsewhere’s approach is different:
Not agents. We’re not a directory of venues. We operate retreats and festivals ourselves, with a curated portfolio.
Not bolt-ons. Activities aren’t outsourced add-ons. They’re designed in-house as part of the field.
End-to-end. From transport and food to facilitation and design, we steward the whole journey.
Field-based. More than logistics: we hold the energy, flow, and resonance of the gathering itself.
It’s this combination that makes Private Festivals 2.0 possible.
Case Examples (Illustrative)
Leadership Values Festival → A fintech rewrites its company values at Hill House with 12 leaders. One month later, the full 200-person team gather at The Amersham Campus Festival, where those values are launched through Spraycans, mural walls, and storytelling challenges. The values move from paper to lived experience.
Christmas Festival Alternative → Instead of a pub party, a consulting firm holds a boutique winter festival: candlelit yurts, mulled wine, gratitude rituals, and a reflective Tea Heist game. The year is marked with warmth and connection, not noise.
Milestone Festival → A tech company goes public and marks it with a two-day festival: live music, reflective zones, creative challenges, and a closing fire circle. Employees describe it as “the most meaningful moment in the company’s history.”
Looking Ahead: The Festival as Cultural Infrastructure
The future of work gatherings is shifting. The one-night party is fading. The two-day retreat is rising. And the company festival — designed as a cultural milestone — is set to become one of the most powerful formats of all.
Because when done right, a festival isn’t just an event. It’s:
A story people carry.
A ritual of belonging.
A field of play, reflection, and celebration.
This is why we believe festivals are coming back. Not as a fad. Not as novelty. But as part of the rhythm of how great teams grow.
Closing: The Festival of Us
At Elsewhere, we don’t run parties. We don’t rent fields.
We create fields where culture can come alive.
The Festival of Us is the next chapter: playful, reflective, and unforgettable.
Not events. Not logistics.
But cultural landmarks your team will remember for years.