Minnesota Vikings Half Time Show

Designing a special moment for the Prince themed half time show

The Brief

NEWSUBSTANCE worked with the events team at Minnesota Vikings to produce a magical moment within their inaugural half time show. The first official game of the season in the Vikings new home stadium required a special moment for the half time show. With the city being the home of the musical legend Prince it was only right to pay homage to his brilliance during the half time performance through a live rendition of his seminal track ‘Purple Rain’.

Event Statistics

The first half time show in the new US Bank stadium was attended by over 66,000 live spectators and watched by millions more on live TV.

— Client

Minnesota Vikings / US Bank Stadium

— Location

Minnesota, USA

The Outcome

NEWSUBSTANCE created a section of the half time show to realise the vision of ‘Purple Rain’ through the use of our ‘Falling Stars’ product, a synthetic paper helicopter containing a flashing LED.

Over 30,000 individual falling stars were deployed at strategic points around the stadium’s extensive roof gantry prior to the game. At a key point in the Purple Rain track a team of over 30 volunteers, all local residents and Vikings fans, under the guidance and training of the NEWSUBSTANCE team showered the excited crowd below with the purple LED ‘rain’. The sustained affect lasted over a minute and gave lucky spectators genuine take-away value as many walked away carrying a flashing LED keepsake.

The helicopters were custom printed with Vikings branding and the LED units were specially manufactured in vivid purple to produce the desired effect.

As a team we were extremely proud to be associated with such an iconic brand in the NFL family and using such committed volunteers made the event all the more special.

Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä leads the Minnesota Orchestra during halftime show of the game between the Minnesota Vikings game versus the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 18, 2016 at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. (Photo Credit: Matt Blewett/The Minnesota Sports Report)