On our way to Vegas in May 2019, we happened to be browsing the Southwest in-flight magazine and came across this ad for a Hunger Games exhibit located in the MGM Grand. Adam and I were both big Hunger Games fans. In fact, Adam took up archery briefly because it ignited an interest for him (side note: when I saw the bow and arrow in his closet on our third date, I might have fallen a little in love).
As soon as we landed and got to our hotel, we looked into it. The exhibit was actually still in its soft opening, but was accepting the public. We decided to give it a shot to see what it was all about!
Right off the bat, the entrance was incredible and immersive. It was definitely set up for that social media moment.
Overall, the exhibit was wonderfully designed and put together. It was wonderfully quiet. As it was just beginning to open to the public, it hadn’t been largely discovered yet. This gave us the added benefit of everything being shiny and new. Our tickets were in the realm of $30/person, which was a little pricey for a Vegas attraction of this size. I believe we were in and out in under an hour. Still, what there was to look at was awesome. They had a couple sets to do photo-ops in, interactive displays to further explore Panem and the movies, plus loads of costumes.
It was also really cool to see such an awesome display of the costumes from the movie. They were very impressive, colorful, and fun to look at up close. I was actually a little surprised at how thin and inexpensive some of the material was. The costumes were clearly made to look great on film and last for the scenes needed (and then in an exhibit afterward), but not much more. You would never be able to tell that from the pictures or on the actual movies, though. It was a fun behind-the-scenes insight form the exhibit.
Lastly, we were ushered into a room full of giant screens. There they had bows and specially designed arrows that we were actually able to shoot at the screens. The arrows had some kind of ball at the tip that allowed it to bounce off the screen. They had an awesome training activity with targets worth a certain amount of points for us to shoot. We didn’t get any videos or pictures of this because we were busy actually participating and trying to outdo each other.
The archery experience was a blast. The place was so empty that I wish they would have let us go again, but the odds were not in our favor for that one, lol.
Overall, this exhibit was a lot of fun and I am glad that we went. I don’t think we would do it a second time unless we were with people who really wanted to check it out. Still, it is a special memory from this trip and was an excellent way to kick off our weekend!