Bringing the Chaos!

The trend for immersive experiences gets interactive

This month, our team visited the augmented reality go-karting experience, Chaos Karts. The experience merges traditional go-karting with a projected and interactive environment—think of a Mario Kart-style game but in real life. For 20 minutes, we were all able to live out our fantasies of throwing fried eggs and other projectiles at each other without causing any lasting damage (except for a bruised ego or two).

Chaos Karts is the brainchild of Little Lion Entertainment, the company also behind the neighbouring Crystal Maze LIVE Experience. They have made a name for themselves by bringing different forms of nostalgic media to life in the ever-growing ‘immersive experience’ market. Over the last 10–15 years, this sector of the cultural industry has expanded beyond recognition, thanks to industry leaders such as Punchdrunk (The Drowned Man, The Burnt City), Secret Cinema (Back to the Future, Stranger Things), and Immersive Everywhere (The Great Gatsby, Peaky Blinders). However, this trend has been predominantly London-centric. Little Lion Entertainment has bucked this trend somewhat by using Manchester as a launchpad and permanent base for several of its projects.

Previously, immersive experiences in Manchester had been limited to short runs and experimental projects hosted by organisations such as Manchester International Festival (now Factory International). However, with the recent opening of the Museum of Illusions on Manchester’s Market Street and Little Lion Entertainment bringing another nostalgic IP to life this March with the Pac-Man Live Experience, it’s encouraging to see experience makers realising the potential that cities like Manchester can offer to this industry.

At CTConsults, we support our clients with digital transformation strategies, highlighting the benefits of adopting digital tools and practices to enhance the day-to-day running of cultural experiences. It’s exciting to see industry leaders like Little Lion Entertainment pushing the sector to embrace its own digital transformation—moving beyond popular but relatively passive experiences (Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience and David Hockney: Bigger & Closer) to more interactive and responsive experiences like Chaos Karts and Pac-Man.