Words and photos by Streets Dept Lead Contributor Eric Dale.
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This post is a free sample of our monthly “Local Tourist” column, a Patreon-exclusive series that recommends interesting places to visit in the Philly area. Patreon is a membership platform that lets readers like you directly support the work we do here at Streets Dept (and enables us to operate without ads!) Bonus Patreon-only articles like this are one of the ways that we thank our members. If you enjoy it (and our other reporting), join our Patreon today for just $5/month!

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Hello and welcome to another installment of Local Tourist, your monthly photo guide to the Philadelphia area.

This month, I’d like to introduce you to the newest experiential art space in town: Otherworld.

Well, “in town” isn’t quite accurate. Otherworld is a little far out there, right across the street from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. But even there, it’s not that far, thanks to I-95.

Otherworld opened one year ago this month [which is when we orginally created this post for our Patreon]. According to the website, “it’s a new kind of art+entertainment experience that combines elements of large-scale Burning Man style art, immersive theater, escape room, children’s museum and haunted house.”

I’ve never been to a Burn, so I can’t comment on that, but Otherworld is definitely large-scale. I disagree with the immersive theater description—there are no actors to interact with and you’re not really playing a role in any story. But escape room, children’s museum, and haunted house it certainly is. (Don’t worry—it has more of the feel of a haunted house than the scariness of one.)

This is Otherworld’s second location—and their first, which opened in Columbus, Ohio, in 2019, was just named one of the top 10 immersive art experiences in the country by USA Today readers. Online reviews of that first location are pretty positive, too, so I had high expectations going in.

So… was it worth it the half-hour drive and the $40 price of entry?

As long as you allow enough time to fully explore the place, I’d say yes.

This month, I’m going to mostly let the photos do the talking, as this is an almost entirely visual experience. But I will share a few thoughts.

First, the length of time to plan for. You must book a specific entry time, but once you’re in, you can stay for as long as you like. I booked a 6pm entry, allowing me two hours to check it out before they closed at 8pm. Based on my experience, if all you want to do is explore the immersive weirdness and take some photos (and there are definitely some great photo and video opportunities), you can probably discover and walk through the entire space (as in, every single room) in under an hour and a half—I think. The layout is somewhat labyrinthine, so I’m not 100% certain that I discovered every single nook and cranny. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn’t do the one room where you have to take off your shoes before climbing through a bunch of netting. (According to a visitor I overheard, exiting that one “felt like being birthed.”)

If, however, you want to dive a little deeper to engage with the puzzle elements and easter eggs, you’ll need at least two hours. I did stay for that full two hours, and I feel like I only solved/figured out about half of the escape room-esque aspects. To figure it all out, I think I would have needed at least another hour, because some places will make you understand other places, so you’ll need to go back and find them again to approach them with a fresh perspective.

I’m being vague here so as to not spoil the puzzle stuff. But if you’re interested in that, let’s just say that you should pay extra attention in any room with a hand sanitizer dispenser set up! You may also need to team up—at one point, I encountered a couple who seemed to be in need of additional bodies. They were clearly onto something, so I stood where they told me to, and sure enough, something happened. I later ran into them again, searching through a computer. So if you’re super into escape rooms and want to really get your money’s worth, I’d recommend planning for at least three hours at Otherworld, which really makes the price justifiable.

One thing I think Otherworld could do better is framing the experience. Checking in was extremely easy—there was no line, so I walked up, showed the QR code in my booking email, and the person at the ticket counter basically said “ok, you’re good to go, there’s the entrance.” And I walked in.

Normally I would be thrilled by such a breezy admittance, but the research I did prior to my visit revealed that there’s an overall concept at play inside Otherworld. I was really surprised to be let in with ZERO introduction to this. Luckily for you, now that you’re reading this, this won’t apply to you!

As early press for Otherworld explains, you’re supposedly becoming a “subscriber” to a “futuristic techno-utopian community” when you enter. At the center of this community is ATAM, a computer/fungal(?) entity. Is it good? Is it evil? Maybe you have to find out. Maybe there is no answer. In multiple interviews, the creator of Otherworld has compared the space to a concept album, saying that there’s no real narrative despite the presence of narrative elements.

Evidently, it’s hard to describe—but, like, come on! Tell me SOMETHING when I walk in the front door! Or at least throw up an intro video that pulls you into the story a bit if you want to go in with that mindset. For those who want an experience more akin to an escape room, this would be very welcome.

Definitely keep an eye out for work by local artists! According to the creators, about one quarter of the work inside was created by Philly-based folks. There are plenty of locals whose work I would not recognize since I’m really only an expert in Philly street art, but even in that realm, I did instantly recognize one room created by Sea of Doom, and there’s a massive mural by Adam Crawford out the back of the giftshop. (Psst, this hallway also leads to a secret entrance that shortcuts you to one of the coolest rooms in the whole place!)

Oh, and the front entrance was designed by David Guinn and painted by Evan Lovett!

Alright, that’s about it for me. Have fun exploring! Say hi to the hundreds of projectors for me.

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