What Is 29Rooms Chicago?

By now if you follow any Chicagoland influencer, you’ve likely seen/heard of 29Rooms Chicago. It’s a pop up of interactive art installations in a West Loop warehouse. The annual Refinery 29 event is typically reserved for New York and Cali, but this year the Midwest was graced with a visit. My husband heard about it a few months ago through working with host Refinery 29, and he purchased tickets for us as soon as sales were open. I don’t think he actually knew what it was other than a trendy event that was bound to sell out quickly. Had he actually had an idea of the point of 29Rooms Chicago, he might not have been so quick to invite me, his blogger wife.

Editor’s note: This is post is a stream of consciousness of my experience, but scroll to the bottom if you want the TL;DR quick tips on attending. 

The popup is hailed as an interactive art event, but let’s be real, it’s 29 opportunities for Instagram-worthy photos. Which totally isn’t a bad thing – I think Steve just wished he knew what he was getting into bringing me and his camera phone. We arrived Friday at 3 p.m., just in time for our time slot but late according to directions. It’s suggested you arrive 15 minutes before your ticket time, but our timing was perfect because we walked right in. From the crowd, I felt like we were heading into Lollapalooza. There were people coming from all directions and everyone was dressed super trendy. Everyone was pretty young and when we saw anyone in an older age demographic than us we wondered if when they bought tickets  they knew it’d be them a bunch of social media obsessed millennials.

Days leading up to 29Rooms Chicago I stalked the Instagrams of anyone who’d gone early as part of the influencer previews. I wanted to know what to wear and what photo opps to expect. The influencers looked amazing – they color-coordinated with sets, lighting was beautiful and it seemed like they genuinely had a blast interacting with all of the displays. “Cool!” I thought. “I will look just as trendy inside of the Women’s March room.” (Spoiler: I didn’t, but it was still a favorite room because there were postcards available to fill out to members of Congress and the cards were then mailed on our behalf.)

Speaking of rooms, many were sponsored. My favorite sponsored ones were by Samsung because they had staff onsite to help capture your photo or video to show the power of their camera phones. (I am actually seriously considering a droid so it was great product placement for me, a target consumer.) The wall of fans was an example of a Samsung booth. Small groups stood in front of the fans while a trendy 20-something in a black sweatshirt dress helped them create slo-mo videos. It was fun to watch the groups, but after 15 minutes of standing in line we were ready to get our shot and move on.

I should add that something I was surprised to learn about 29Rooms is that there are lines for most exhibits. (“Exhibits?” “Photo opps?” What do you actually call them?) Luckily I was warned by someone who attended 29Rooms before me, otherwise I would have been disappointed that about 1/3 of our time there was waiting in a queue.

Another room was sponsored by Jake Gyllenhaal. (Why? I didn’t really investigate, to be honest.) In that room you write on a piece of paper with a Sharpie what you want to let go of. Shred it, then throw the paper scraps in a pile of other paper! Then, jump in the pile and take boomerangs of you tossing the shredded paper in the air. (This isn’t required – just an obvious next steps for all us walking around with our smartphones out.) Steve wrote that he was letting go of taking my blog pics, but we were only halfway through the event so of course I dismissed that.

Product plug of my own! Earrings are Kendra Scott and c/o Rocksbox. I love them!

Speaking of how much time we spent in the popup event, we used nearly the entire three hours allotted per ticket group. Steve and I hadn’t expected to stay that long, but we also hadn’t considered the time we’d spend in line or dodging crowds for photos. Staying the span of our ticket was fine because we wanted to feel as if we got our money’s worth. We also stayed to hit all of our “must see” rooms, based on my Instagram research. I really wanted this photo with a typewriter because the tool actually holds a special meaning to us. Steve and I both began our careers in journalism so I see typewriters as a symbol of how we initially connected over our professional interests. There was even one on our guest book table at our wedding.

Steve was my “photographer” at a lot of the stations. I had expected better lighting since this event is so focused on photo-opps. But as you can probably see from my photos, good lighting hardly existed. Maybe I’m just a bad photo editor, but I don’t know how others got their photos so crisp. Perhaps with a more professional photographer and camera? The stress of getting the right photo (and our thirst and hunger because there wasn’t drink or food at the event) caused a few squabbles at the event for Steve and me. Obviously we still took a lot of photos, though.

That’s just a brief recap of 29Rooms Chicago. Too long, didn’t read? Scroll to the bottom to get some quick thoughts and tips for if you’re heading there this year or considering a future event. Overall, Steve and I asked ourselves if we’d go again, given we didn’t know what to expect and that it turned out differently than we imagined. The answer is yes, we would. Although I said probably not more than once a year and potentially with another blogger next time, because I won’t argue with her about getting the right shot!

TL;DR
What to know about one of the most Millennial things you’ll ever do – a visit to 29Rooms Chicago? Read:

1. From our experience you don’t have to be 15 min early; we arrived on time and walked right up and into the line of people slowly entering the building.
2. The term “rooms” is loose because in Chicago it’s set up in a warehouse, where the rooms are created with temporary walls or even no walls, just a dedicated space for the exhibit.
3. The majority of attendees will be dressed super trendy because, after all, we’re all there for the photo opps.
4. Do your research online to know what the rooms look like and which you want to hit for sure, because you likely won’t get through them all in the allotted three hours.
5. Speaking of hitting all of the rooms, you’ll be slowed down by lines to get into the rooms. The lines move pretty fast though and it’s fun to people watch as you wait.
6. Some rooms are interactive, but most are just for the ‘gram. And, you might feel hurried through to make the most of your time.
7. If you’re there with an unexperienced photographer, like your blogger husband, you might get in a fight over the unavoidable shadows on your face in the floral display because the lighting sucks. Don’t expect high-quality photos unless you have the right equipment and professional photog.
8. Don’t arrive thirsty or hungry. There’s no food or drink, although we did find $2 bottled water at the merch table and a free larabar at the sponsored room – thank goodness!
9. Inside is warmer than you might expect. There’s air conditioning, but it’s a huge warehouse and the event was in the middle of summer.
10. There are attendants at each room and I found the majority of them to be super nice, willing to take a photo, and have great suggestions on how to make the most out of the experience.

Keep scrolling to see more photos from 29Rooms Chicago. I’d love to hear your experience if you also attended! Comment below.