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Pop Up Events become lifeline for promoter

BY KRISTINE CANNON

Progress Staff Writer

As an events and entertainment company, Steve LeVine Entertainment & Public Relations was hit by the coronavirus pandemic — and hit hard.

Following the postponement of Scottsdale Fashion Week, a four-day event SLE hosts in the spring that attracts thousands of guests, hundreds of other events disappeared from their calendar.

“And we knew that in order to survive as a company, we had to pivot,” said CEO Steve LeVine.

SLE began hosting virtual entertainment, including live music, comedy sets and movies. They then worked with city of�icials in Scottsdale and Glendale to create safe, socially distanced drive-in events.

And that led to the creation of their uber-successful "Pop Up Events."

SLE has hosted 3,700 cars with more than 11,000 attendees at their morethan 70 Pop Up Events in Scottsdale and Glendale.

At their newest venue, WestWorld, which can host more than 500 vehicles, SLE has hosted eight events, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship 251 streaming event and the showings of “Jurassic Park” and “Despicable Me” drawing their biggest crowds.

SLE has also hosted events at Sonora Village in Scottsdale and Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale.

“We have had sold-out movies, including ‘Star Wars,’ ‘The Call of the Wild,’ ‘The Sandlot’ and ‘The Greatest Showman,’” LeVine said.

UFC was the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s �irst drive-in event and drew more than 350 fans.

“It was a great experience,” LeVine said.

through the fall, while continuing to work with the City of Scottsdale and the governor’s of�ice to ensure all events are safe. SLE is also considering expanding into different cities and states, too. “Besides the drive-ins we have been doing locally in AZ, we have been consulting for new drive-ins in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Miami, and a few in Texas,” LeVine said. While LeVine does believe driveins and social distance events will be around “for quite some time,” he does admit that he isn’t sure how the pandemic will impact the traditional movie theater experiSince the start of the pandemic, SLE has worked with the cities of Scottsdale and Glendale ence moving forward. to host more than 70 Pop Up Events, including movie screenings. Most of their upcoming “I think with the streaming Pop Up Events take place at WestWorld of Scottsdale. (SLE) available to everyone’s house with Net�lix, Disney+, and all the others “Not only were guests treated to amazsaid. “You just can’t help to dance in your that are available along with the ing �ights, we also had a ‘social distant’ seat singing along to every song he plays.” new services popping up like HBO Max live interview with UFC �ighter Frankie Tickets are $20 per car. and [NBC’s] Peacock, people have the Saenz, which gave attendees an inside In addition to hosting private events ability to create the movie viewing expelook and how he is prepping for his upand other smaller-scale events, SLE riences they prefer,” LeVine said. coming �ight and how he is staying busy brainstormed other unique events, like “I noticed that movie theaters are also during these times. pop-up gaming events. starting to stream to homes as well; and “It was awesome to hear everyone “We’ve learned so much to make these because of the pandemic, we saw new honking and �lashing their lights and live events event better,” LeVine said. movie releases stream directly from the cheering from their cars.” Hosted by SLE and presented by Game studios to homes as well,” he added.

And the Pop Up Events keep on coming. On Entertainment and Showboss AV, In the meantime, SLE will continue to

Next weekend’s lineup includes a speGame On Mega Drive In takes place Aug. update their website with new movie cial showing of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Ad7-8 at WestWorld. nights and other drive-in events. venture” on July 31. The two-day event will feature mov“We are working hard to continually

“With the closing of Metro Center Mall, ies, Super Smash Ultimate tournaments, improve the experience at our drive-ins,” we thought it would be a great tribute, a virtual cosplay contest, live music and LeVine said. plus celebrating the 30th anniversary of more. Tickets are $40 per car. “We are constantly looking at everything ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,’ which “August is playing host to a lot of priand are always adding new ideas and makwas partially �ilmed there,” LeVine said. vate events, but we will continue to host ing things we have been doing event bet

As guests arrive, DJ Soulman will be movie nights and movie-style events ter, from trivia on the screens, customized live video-mixing throwback ‘80s tunes. like UFC, concerts, comedy and more,” announcements and commercials, special

“He really does such a great job formatLeVine said. effects and concessions.” ting music that everyone loves,” LeVine LeVine added that SLE will plan events Information: popupevents.us