Here we have crafted a guide to make your Astra Lumina experience easier including details on parking, tickets, and the different thematic areas to check out.

Dates and Tickets

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Tickets for Astra Lumina are available via Fever starting at $36 with time slots every 15 minutes from 5:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. It’s best to experience the night walk after sunset, so estimate your arrival after 6 p.m.

Astra Lumina is now running at the South Coast Botanic Garden until December 31, 2023.

Parking

Depending on the night, parking can be busy, so it’s best to show up earlier for your appointed time. Since many cars will be entering the parking lot from the city and making a left from the center lanes, it would be easier and faster to enter from the southwest side as you head northeast.

Welcome Area

The welcome area is home to the merchandise booth and the snacks and drinks area. It’s also the start of the walking experience.

The merchandise booth features mugs, tumblers, gloves, t-shirts, baseball caps, beanies, hoodies, blankets, sherpa, pins, magnets, stickers, and tote bags with glow ink.

For snacks, your choices are the Pretzel Bites & Cheese, Nacho Cheese & Chips, and Galaxy Apple Pie.

Featured Astral Tequila Cocktails:

• Star Crossed Martini (Astral Blanco, Coffee Liqueur, Cold Brew)
• Cosmic Hot Chocolate (Astral Blanco, Coffee Liqueur, Hot Chocolate, House Mexican Spice Mix, Whipped Cream, Dusted Chocolate)
• MoonGlow Mule (Astral Blanco, Tamarind, Blood Orange Syrup, Lime, Ginger Beer)

The menu also includes signature drinks (Celestial Hot Cocoa, Classic Hot Chocolate), beer, wine, soda, water, and spirits (tequila, bourbon, rum, whiskey, gin, and more).

Astra Archway

The first immersive area is the Astra Archway, which features archways and fog lighting up the path with peaceful music in the background. The lights move to the sound effects.

Starlight Lanterns

The Starlight Lanterns have lanterns that emit light all over the area, making it feel intimate and cozy as you read inspiring messages from the different lanterns.

Falling Stars

Falling Stars is one of our favorite areas with its gigantic display and cool visuals. Giant rods with a circle above emulate the look of falling stars as epic music is played. It’s a hypnotic light show that includes benches for guests to sit down to enjoy the view.

Stardust Rays

Stardust Rays is a romantic spot where light rays shine through the trees, creating a fairy-tale atmosphere where nature and the stars meet.

Celestial Trail

Celestial Trail has plant-like lights popping from the ground. The lights and music flow across the landscape, painting a tranquil scene of frolicking in the woods.

Stellar Visions

Stellar Visions features a giant display with a circular see-through screen at the top. It follows the journey of stars as they discover their past.

Cosmic Choir

Cosmic Choir has floating orbs that represent fallen stars, creating a symphony all around guests.

Astral Genesis

Astral Genesis represents the regeneration of the stars, and it’s reminiscent of a giant disco ball rising from the ground.

Rise of the Stars

The epic finale belongs to Rise of the Stars, an area with giant rods rising from the ground, creating a pathway. You can walk through it, or you can stand and witness the beautiful light show and music, emulating a music visualizer.

Photobooth

Your journey at Astra Lumina comes to a close with the final area, the photo booth. It features metallic rods with the Astra Lumina sign posted at the top.

Astra Lumina is a beautiful experience with plenty of gorgeous areas, and it’s recommended to take in the sights to truly have the world envelope around you.

Astra Lumina is located at South Coast Botanic Garden and will end at the end of December 2023. Tickets are available on Fever.

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Angel of Light is produced by ODEON, an immersive experience and technology company with Chris Anastas and Mark Binder as the creators of the original storyline and Buck Mason as the producer. The experience serves as a prequel to the upcoming film, Hex, which is set for release in 2025 and will be part of an anthology from Parma Pictures.

The Los Angeles Theatre is a wonderful venue for Angel of Light since the story is set in 1935’s Old Hollywood. The experience features a traditional haunted maze, live performances and elaborate sets, and the experience lasts for 60 minutes, maybe more if you want to explore some more. It also features Dolby Atmos sound, projection mapping, shifting light and music, and power strobe lights.

Parking and Entrance

Since Angel of Light is held at the Los Angeles Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, parking will be hit and miss depending on the time you arrive. There are parking lots all around with different rates and on-street metered parking.

Once you arrive at the location, you’ll see the Angel of Light marquee, and on the left side of the entrance is a big video projection giving viewers a taste of things to come. When buying your tickets at Fever.com, you’ll get to choose a time slot. Once you’re at the entrance, there should be different lines with signs letting you know where to line up.

If you want to experience Angel of Light without spoilers, please do not read any further.

The Story

Here’s the synopsis for the show to set up the world of Angel of Light:

“In Angel of Light, the story unfolds in the early nineteenth century when a hexed girl, Rota Krisha, plagues a small rural village. The villagers turn to Father Nicolai, a priest known for his ‘spiritual sound healing,’ who discovers that specific structures elicit a binaural effect when singing or chanting is performed within them. Hoping to summon an angel to counter the evil presence, the villagers bring Rota into the ancient catacombs for a special ceremony. However, it takes a dark turn when Satan himself is unleashed, wreaking havoc among those present. The events unfold in a cataclysm of horror and chaos, but Rota Krisha manages to escape to America, where her life remains uneventful. That is until she marries a sound engineer in Los Angeles…”

The Lobby

When you enter the theatre, you’ll be walking into the lobby with creepy figures in robes standing and sitting all around you. I felt like I was already transported into the past thanks to the Los Angeles Theatre design and the performers’ outfits fitting the era.

As the dozens in your group gather inside, performers portraying ghosts will descend from the main stairs, acting in peculiar manners. It’s a pre-show to set up the mood for the rest of the night, and once that’s done, you will go through the entrance on the right and down the stairs into the darkness as you cross paths with other ghostly performers.

The Maze

The next destination is the haunted maze with scare actors. The entrance had religious figures with blood coming down their eyes and ears. The rest of the maze has twists and turns and other performers roam around trying to scare you.

The Lounge

When you’re finished with the maze, you’ll go downstairs again towards the lounge area featuring disturbed ghosts who seem to be stuck in a loop. They do interact with you, but it’s very limited and they are mostly just background aesthetics for the world of Angel of Light. Don’t expect the same kind of interactions as other immersive horror shows like Delusion and Creep LA.

You’ll then be venturing into the lounge area where you can take your time to relax or explore other rooms. If you want drinks, there are bars. There are phone booths where you can see if there’s a creepy phone call, the nursery room, the room of mirrors, and the fancy restroom.

The Final Show

The entrance to the final performance can be a bit tricky since it’s a nondescript door near the passageway that leads to the nursery room and the room of mirrors. You’ll see someone working the door who’ll help you out. Inside is a queue line for the next showing. The queue line leads to another maze including a hallway with different rooms. One room had a door ajar, and in the dark, you could hear the sound of a baby crying. This definitely gave me scary vibes from Silent Hill’s PT, a video game project from Hideo Kojima.

The maze will take you all the way around the theater and into the lobby of the auditorium where you’ll wait to be seated. The auditorium has spooky mannequins covered in robes on the side, and as guests sit down and wait for the show to begin, robed performers in freaky masks roam around in the dark.

The actual show features a performer as Rota Krisha singing to the crowd with backup dancers complementing the atmosphere. It was a very abstract performance with interpretive dancing, and the dancers were talented with their flexibility and agile moves.

Final Reaction

Angel of Light is a horror experience featuring horror mazes, a live show, and creepy rooms, and the Los Angeles Theatre is a perfect location for the 1930s setting. The whole experience is very abstract and surreal, which can turn off those who aren’t into the whole arthouse style of storytelling. However, if you have read the synopsis, that should give you a better understanding of the different events that take place in Angel of Light.

You can get tickets to Angel of Light at Fever.com.

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ODEON, in collaboration with Fever, is transporting guests back in time to Old Hollywood in 1935 following the terrifying story of Rota Krisha featuring ancient curses, sonic secrets, and demonic possession. With The Los Angeles Theatre as the venue, you’ll get to go on a self-guided adventure, all leading up to a climactic live on-stage performance. The 60-minute experience combines live theater with technology including Dolby Atmos sound, projection mapping, shifting light and music, and power strobe lights.

You’ll be able to experience different types of sets including the underground catacombs, theater dressing rooms and a ballroom with creepy demonic characters. There’s also the LED Possession Cube room where you can see inside the mind of Rota. The finale with a live performance by Rota will be held in the main theater.

The show will be running from September 15 to October 31. Tickets begin at $59.50 per person at Fever. The experience is for ages 16+ unless accompanied by a parent. The show is not recommended for ages 13 and under.

Here’s the synopsis:

“The experience is set in the 1930s as guests are transported back to the Hollywood Golden Age and find themselves at the Los Angeles Theatre to see Rota K. Preston’s debut vocal performance. Unbeknownst to the audience, the ancient Angel of Light curse is revived that evening – and attendees will relive the chaotic and unsettling tale through the combination of live performances, elaborate sets, and ornate artistry.”

Angel Of Light Backstory

“In Angel of Light, the story unfolds in the early nineteenth century when a hexed girl, Rota Krisha, plagues a small rural village. The villagers turn to Father Nicolai, a priest known for his ‘spiritual sound healing,’ who discovers that specific structures elicit a binaural effect when singing or chanting is performed within them. Hoping to summon an angel to counter the evil presence, the villagers bring Rota into the ancient catacombs for a special ceremony. However, it takes a dark turn when Satan himself is unleashed, wreaking havoc among those present. The events unfold in a cataclysm of horror and chaos, but Rota Krisha manages to escape to America, where her life remains uneventful. That is until she marries a sound engineer in Los Angeles…”

Angel of Light acts as the prequel to the upcoming 2025 film, Hex, from Parma Pictures. The film will be part of an anthology and is written and created by Chris Anastas. Sound is an important part of the experience, and the story even features a sound engineer. Anastas partnered with Mark Binder, a sound designer and re-recording mixer who is the founder of IMN Creative, known for its work in Dolby Atmos immersive mix stages.

“From our original recordings of late 20s and 30’s music to the unique custom soundscape creation that spans over 30 rooms of audio, which includes notable Dolby Atmos experiences, audiences will delve into the chilling depths of horror and be immersed in a world that blurs the line between reality and nightmares,” Mark Binder, Angel of Light Co-Creator said in a statement.

“The second guests step through the threshold of the theater, they will be fully transported back in time to relive the chilling tale of the Angel of Light curse. Through a captivating fusion of technology and classic theater with live actor interactions, our goal is to create a truly innovative, unforgettable immersive horror experience,” said Chris Anastas, fellow Co-Creator of Angel of Light.

There will be a special limited VIP Experience starting Friday, October 13 through October 31. Food and beverages will be offered to guests.

Here are the details for the location, dates and more:

• Where: Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014
• When: From September 15 through October 31st, with performances Wednesday – Sunday, 6 PM – 12 AM PT
• Duration: 60 – 90 minutes
• Tickets: Tickets start at $59.50 per person and can be purchased here.
• Age: 16+ unless accompanied by a parent. Not recommended for children under 13

Featured image courtesy of ODEON.

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Explore the Vatican tickets are available at Fever.com.

Explore Vatican: Immersive Experience Parking and Entrance

Explore Vatican: Immersive Experience is located at Ace Mission Studios in Downtown Los Angeles. The parking and entrance can be a bit tricky, but you can find it via the banners on the sidewalks. The logo for Explore Vatican is a bit small, and it could benefit from a larger font size. Parking is readily available, and after you park, you can enter the exhibit by going back outside of the parking gate and around to the fence gate on the side.

Once you reach past the fence gate, there’s a long alleyway that leads to a ramp, where the main door of the exhibit is located. After checking in from inside the lobby, you can download the Explore Vatican app (search for Augtraveler via the App Store or Google Play) and see select statues and monuments in augmented reality through your phone’s camera in the Discover Room.

The Discover Room

“This is the opportunity to learn a bit about what you’re going to experience,” Ashley Noronha, Co-Curator of Explore Vatican: Immersive Experience, tells Nerd Reactor. “Now, of course, the Vatican itself covers 2,000 years of fantastic history. So this gives a little bit of an overview, a top line of what it’s all about and how it came to be, including some profiles on the great artists who are behind the masterpieces.”

At the start of the Discover Room, there’s a giant wall featuring a diagram of Vatican City. You can see where different sites are located including the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Piazza, the Obelisk, and more.

The Discover Room has a lot of information about Vatican City including a timeline of historical events, the Bridge of Angels, the construction of St. Peter’s Piazza, Bernini’s Colonnades, the Obelisk, Statue of St. Peter, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Baldacchino, The Pieta, and more.

As you explore the Discover Room, you’ll have the chance to interact with the Explore the Vatican app to bring out 3D objects and statues to life via your phone’s camera. You’ll know when to use the app when you see the phone and the triangle image on the different walls.

It may take some trial and error, but once you’re able to load the object, it will be displayed on the ground (depending on where you positioned it). You can even snap a photo as if you’re standing next to the objects.

The Immersive Room

After you’re done exploring the Discover Room and learning all about Vatican City, it’s time to enter the Immersive Room. It’s a huge room with 360-degree projected screens from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. There are seats placed all around, so you can just sit back and relax and take in the visuals all around you.

Extras

The next area features photo ops, puzzles, and virtual reality. For photos, simply scan your QR code card with your phone, and it’ll track the different photo booths with different Vatican City backgrounds. 1 printed photo costs $7, with 2 costing $12, 3 photos for $15, and 5 photos for $20.

There are also touch-screen puzzle games and a virtual reality station that takes viewers into the history of Vatican City from its origin to today.

Final Reaction

Explore Vatican: Immersive Experience has a lot of images and information to get me excited to visit the real Vatican City. There’s a lot to learn about the popular tourist spot, and it will definitely help prepare you when you do visit the city.

As for the immersive aspect of the exhibit, the production value feels very lacking. For the very observant, the video resolution is very low for a room of that size, and it could have been elevated with sharper imagery and more vibrant colors. It’s still neat to see Vatican City come to life with the many different sites and paintings, and it’s probably the closest feeling to being inside the Sistine Chapel without visiting the actual Sistine Chapel.

I did the VR experience, and it excels at giving you a taste of the timeline of Vatican City and a feel of where things are. However, VR enthusiasts will be disappointed with the production values since the graphics are very low quality.

Additionally, I wish there was more to see in terms of unique exhibits since there are just two main rooms of interest: the Discover Room and the Immersive Room.

About Explore Vatican: Immersive Experience

Explore the Vatican: Immersive Exhibition opens daily from 12 pm to 6 pm (Tuesdays are closed) from now until September 15, 2023. It’s located at Ace Mission Studios in Downtown Los Angeles.

Tickets start at $21 for children (4-11) and $30 for adults (12+) and are available at Fever.com.

For more immersive experiences from Fever, check out our Van Gogh Immersive Experience Guide and Review.

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Ticket Information

For tickets to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, you can purchase them online at Fever.

Starting price is $17.90 for children and $29.90 for adults. There are discounted prices for seniors over 65, students (13 to 26), and those with disabilities. VIP tickets are available starting at $49.90 for adults and $37.90 for children, and it includes the VR experience.

Location and Parking

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is located in a large building in Montebello (1345 N Montebello Blvd, Montebello, CA 90640), the same one that currently has Dinos Alive Exhibit: An Immersive Experience and Bubble World: An Immersive Experience. You don’t need to worry about parking since the location has its own free parking lot, and there are plenty of spots (it used to be a Costco).

There are three exhibits happening at once, and there are lines with signs to help direct you. If you are lost, there should be an employee standing around to help direct you to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience Dates

The Immersive Experience is open to the public starting on Friday, July 14, and ends in September 2023. The hours for weekdays are 10 am – 8 pm (Closed on Tuesdays). Weekends & Holidays are 9 am – 9 pm.

Entrance

Once inside the building, it’ll be on your right, past Bubble World and Dinos Alive Exhibit. A huge mural can be seen to the right of the exhibit’s actual entrance, and it’s hard to miss. It’s inspired by Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and his many Sunflower paintings.

Exploring Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

The introductory rooms are where you learn about Van Gogh’s history including his life, friends and family. Here you can also read more about his famous painter friend Paul Gauguin and his three sisters Anna, Lies and Willemien. Gauguin was the friend who witnessed Van Gogh holding a razor in his hand, which resulted in the Van Gogh later cutting off his ear.

There’s a plaque that summarizes Van Gogh’s contributions including the number of paintings, drawings and sketches. This area is also where the exhibit mixes a few projection mapping pieces and traditional pieces.

A cool piece here is a bust of Van Gogh, with projection mapping encompassing his whole head. It’s very trippy with the colors changing, as if paint strokes are always active on the face.

There’s a small theater with just a bunch and a large screen that’s about 10 feet high. It showcases “The Starry Night,” which is still a painting that can be left to interpretation.

There’s also a gallery of reproduced Van Gogh paintings. These range from his sunflower paintings to exterior paintings such as “Cafe Terrace at Night,” “The Starry Night,” “Starry Night over the Rhône,” “Wheat Field with Cypresses” and many more.

Van Gogh and the Japanese Prints

Van Gogh was interested in Japanese prints, and there’s a showcase featuring his fascination with them. This piece is very abstract from the side, and once you look from the front, it’s still abstract. However, it starts to take shape in interesting ways as you walk closer to the front.

In the same room as the Japanese Prints artwork, guests can get creative by taking photos in the photo ops area. One is a life-size recreation of “Bedroom at Arles,” where you can pose by sitting on the chairs and/or bed. The other is a life-size recreation of “The Vestibule” during his stay at the Saint-Paul de Mausole Asylum.

First Immersive Room

The first immersive room has 360º digital art projection from the floor to all four walls. You can sit and relax here as you witness his artwork expanding across the room. This is just a teaser for the big final exhibit.

Second Immersive Room

This main piece is how Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience got its name. It’s a huge room that is two stories high. There are three parts to this room, with Part 1 emulating a virtual museum. In this phase, you’ll get to see his works inside a virtual museum. The second phase turns his immersive works into a complete environment, encapsulating the entire room. The third and final part is when things turn dark as it brings Van Gogh’s final years to life with fast imagery and heart-pumping sound, capturing his descent into madness and alcoholism.

Optional VR Experience

Once you’re finished with the final and epic two-story tall central projection area, you’ll get to try out the 10-minute virtual reality journey titled “A Day in the Life of the Artist.” There’s an additional cost for the VR experience, which is $5. It’s interesting to see some of the inspirations for Gogh’s paintings as you travel to the countryside or the city. With VR, you can look all around to see the beauty that the painter saw in the world, and it would pause in an area so that you can see the object or landscape that Gogh painted. This experience has motivated me to one day go on a trip to France.

Don’t expect high production values for the pre-rendered journey, and I did experience some stutters when looking around. Also, it was hard to hear the audio due to the low volume settings and not being able to use on-ear/over-ear headphones. The speakers are out in the open, and since you’re sitting down with miniature speakers with dozens of others around you, there will be background noise.

Coloring!

The coloring station includes crayons and your choice of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings turned into a coloring page. If you want more freedom, you can choose the blank paper to truly create from your imagination. Once you’re done coloring, you can scan the image, and it will be projected onto the screen on the wall.

There is also the gift ship at the very end of the exhibit that includes all types of merchandise. Additionally, a photographer can take a photo of you in front of a green screen. You can choose different Van Gogh backgrounds. (This one costs $10 each.)

In Conclusion

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is an exhibit that really takes you into the mind of the tortured artist. Activities include viewing the reproduced paintings on display, posing in the photo ops area, coloring at the art stations, relaxing in the immersive rooms, buying at the gift shop and more. Tickets are available via Fever.

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