Free Your Mind is one of those festivals where the crowd comes ready. Ten thousand people on the grounds in Groningen, hands up before the first act even starts. When the organizers asked us to bring Float of Thin Air, we knew we had to match that energy with something playful and instantly recognizable.
Four ghosts, one mission
We built four oversized Pac-Man ghost sculptures — Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde — each glowing from the inside with programmable LED. The plan was simple: carry them through the crowd in a slow procession, letting people interact, take photos and feel like they'd stepped inside the game. What we didn't expect was the crowd parting like a retro maze, creating corridors for the ghosts to float through.
Engineering for open air
Outdoor festivals are a different beast. Wind, sun, unpredictable weather — every element works against inflatable art. We reinforced the internal structures with a double-frame skeleton and used UV-resistant materials for the outer skin. The sculptures held up through six hours of direct sun and a surprise gust that nearly turned Inky into a kite.
The moment
Sunset hit around 21:30. The ghosts lit up against the darkening sky, and for about fifteen minutes the entire field stopped to watch four glowing shapes drift through the crowd. That's the moment we do this for — when thousands of people look up at the same time and forget where they are.