Happy Place Boston: What It’s REALLY Like
When I first heard that Happy Place was coming to Boston, I was over-the-moon excited! Jealous of Californians + their Museum of Ice Cream, and New Yorkers + their Color Factory, I was thrilled to finally have the chance to try out one of these Instagram-optimized funhouses. For those of you who haven’t heard of Happy Place, it’s basically a pop-up experience with giant installations (think larger-than-life stilettos made from M&Ms) and interactive rooms (ie. ball pits + a swinging maze of chains) that encourage you to take photos. On their website, the experience is advertised as “a special place where anyone who walks in is surrounded by all things HAPPY.” While this may technically be true, I have to admit that I didn’t leave all that much happier than when I arrived…
Sure, the photos throughout this post are fun + colorful and I look, well, happy. But I don’t want you to be fooled into thinking that this place is more magical than it was. As a content creator with a high-quality camera and decent editing skills, I was able to make all of these photos look pretty good. In person, however, the installations and rooms weren’t quite up to par with I was expecting…
The lighting was pretty bad in most rooms, leaving shadows and odd bright spots throughout each photo. I had to play with the brightness, exposure, contrast, and shadows of EVERY photo while editing to get them where I wanted them to be. Some of the reflective installations were also poorly placed. The larger-than-life “XO,” pictured below, reflected a rather dull corner of the room – complete with an unsightly trash can and fire hydrant. Other exhibits were already showing wear and tear just a few weeks after opening, such as the mirrored room (which had many of the little palettes missing) and the rubber duck room (ducks had been peeled off the wall leaving their hot glued base visible). Not ideal when you’re striving for the perfect photo. As a set designer, my boyfriend (who was also my photographer for the day) had several thoughts on how he would redesign the space to make it better. Happy Place, he’s for hire!
Another issue I found with the concept was the wait times while others took photos. We went at 1 PM on a Sunday and while the place wasn’t packed, there were still enough people to cause a bit of a back up in certain sections. The mirrored room, chain room (shown in my Instagram Stories “Boston” Highlight), and rubber duck room are all laid out side-by-side, and there is a duplicate of each on the opposite side of the room, forming two lines down the middle. While it helped that there was two versions of each room available, that didn’t completely eliminate the backup. We waited for a few minutes at each while pairs of friends took at least 20 photos for each other (if not more). Oh, to be alive in the Instagram age!
Despite all of this, I don’t want to completely trash Happy Place. It was still exciting to happen upon each room and discover the fun ways you could interact with the installation. I enjoyed becoming a chocolate chip head in a giant cookie and pretending to hang upside down from the ceiling light in a fully-decked out bedroom. Also, who doesn’t love to throw confetti in the air in a giant dome?! The rooms they created have a certain flair, even if they’re not properly designed to a blogger’s standards.
If I had to choose a favorite installation, it would probably be the “super blooms” room (seen below, left). I am such a sucker for flowers, so climbing a short ladder and a popping up through a hole surrounded by bright yellow blooms was a delight for me. The lighting was especially tricky here (it is very dim in person), but the end results of the photos are great. I also loved throwing confetti in the final part of the experience. I only took Boomerangs of this, but you can catch it in my Instagram Stories “Boston” Highlight.
All in all, I wouldn’t say I left Happy Place feeling miraculously more happy. However, it was still a fun experience and the photos are pretty cute. Special shout out to Darren for taking 383 photos of me during our 1-hour visit – you must really like me or something…
You can get tickets to Happy Place here and follow them on Instagram here.
