Forget Las Vegas Sphere, Minneapolis' North Loop will soon have "Square"
MINNEAPOLIS — Las Vegas made a splash last year with the opening of its Sphere venue, but Minneapolis is looking to one-up the competition with a harder-edged geometrical play.
A new event space is set to open later this year in the city's North Loop neighborhood, one of the metro area's prime nightlife hot spots. Dubbed Royalston Square, the space intends to use projectors to transport visitors to any number of locations — art museums, deep under the sea, and even into outer space.
The mastermind behind the new space expects to host everything from unforgettable weddings to extravagant art shows.
"We can transform the space based on what's happening in the event, and take the audience from one world to the other to the other, so they experience all of it at the same time," Steve Hark, CEO of Entourage Events Group, said.
The Royalston Square is scheduled to open in October, and will be located about a half-mile north of Target Field.
According to an announcement from the North Loop Neighborhood Association, there are currently no plans to project images on the outside of the building, which is in contrast to the Sphere, which is located at The Venetian Resort and has a programmable LED exterior for displaying wrap-around motion graphics. The Vegas venue is equipped with 160,000 speakers and over 260 million video pixels.
The Sphere has also been used to showcase immersive movie experiences, another challenge the North Loop's venue may need to match in order to compete.