Evermore: A World Unto Itself
Evermore is an immersive experience located outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, that I can only speak about in superlatives. It was unlike any other immersive thing I’ve ever visited, yet entirely familiar in a fantastical way. It was something that I made the drive out to go see — 10 hours from LA, 10 hours back — and would happily do again. It’s that good.
Evermore is a lot of things, but it is not easy to explain. It’s truly a place that must be experienced to be believed.
The difficulty of Evermore is that it’s hard to describe. Yes, it’s a theme park, in the sense that it is a themed park, but do not go there expecting any rides. What your experience will consist of is walking around a magical land interacting with the people who live there.
Evermore is also the best Renaissance Faire I’ve ever been to, in the sense that you’re in a space that feels like a quaint English village. You’re interacting with actors playing roles — everything from the town postmaster and barkeep to goblins, fairies, trolls, dwarves, knights, vampires, spider princesses…you name it.
Yes, these are actors. And yes, what are they all doing in Salt Lake City? But once you’re in the world, your brain seems to click into the understanding that this is now your reality. This now makes sense. Of course you’re talking to a goblin. Of course you’re speaking with a spider princess.
Evermore is a lot of things, but it is not easy to explain. It’s truly a place that must be experienced to be believed.
Evermore lives 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City. It is the brainchild of Ken Bretschneider. He had a rough childhood, and would find solace and escape into fantasy. He says that imagination saved his life.
He became wealthy after selling his online security company to Norton Securities and began focusing on his childhood dreams.
Evermore is insanely ambitious. Theme parks are expensive to build and expensive to maintain.
When you walk in you can see that the space is unfinished — a hole where a fountain will be, a church still being built out, a large grassy area that will one day contain a four-story manor house.
But what you also see is quality. They’ve spared no expense making this place feel real.
You truly feel like you’re in another world. You feel like you’ve entered someplace special. And thus, it’s easy for your brain to accept that you’re somewhere different. You either buy into this concept or you stand on the sidelines and sneer. I was happy to buy into the concept, and judging from those around me, they all were too.
The concept of play is interesting. As children play comes naturally to us. It’s encouraged. As adults we’re told that we don’t have time for that. That life is serious and thus should be treated that way. Adult play tends to come in the form of alcohol, so that we can loosen up and blame alcohol for our mischief.
But when we’re given permission to play…well…I find that we do. Evermore is a prime example of this.
For me there was a bit of a learning curve to the land of Evermore. I went with my friend Ian, and we walked around taking the whole thing in. The park isn’t large, but the experience is, so you might find yourself needing a guide or a quest to ease into the place.
The villagers are all friendly (unless they’re not, and then they’re still kind of friendly…we’re talking about Utah, after all) and they’ll encourage you to explore, to talk to various characters, and to solve quests…if that’s your sort of thing.
But if you’re in Evermore, I really hope that it is your sort of thing. If you choose to be passive your experience will be much different. Perhaps your comfort zone is sitting in the tavern and watching the world go by. That’s perfectly fine, as long as you allow yourself to be in Evermore.
If you do find yourself in the tavern sipping a root beer (there’s no alcohol in the park. Again: Utah) and listening to Suds, the barkeep, regale you with tales of his friends and adventures, I have no doubt you’ll have a great time. Suds is great. His stories are wonderful.
It saddened me to see people sitting and looking at their phones. I didn’t see much of it, but it was odd to see people sitting, slumped shouldered, silent and staring at their glowing boxes as goblins, princesses, owls (actual owls) and dragon masters walked past them.
If you do lean into the world, perhaps you’ll seek out the Dwarves and tell them ghost stories in exchange for gold pieces.
Perhaps you’ll complete tasks for Pebbles, the little troll girl, who will give you troll cards in exchange for your quests.
Venture into the mausoleum or the catacombs below, if you dare. Phillip Humphries, the town postmaster who will remember your name, will advise against it. But what’s Halloween if not for a bit of a scare?
There is a story and storylines to follow. There are quests to journey on and experiences to be had.
You truly feel like you’re in another world. You feel like you’ve entered someplace special. And thus, it’s easy for your brain to accept that you’re somewhere different.
At the end of two nights in Evermore Ian and I felt we’d done enough to be satisfied. The park is still new — they’re just at the year mark — and there’s only so many quests and journeys you can take before you’ve hit the limits. The writers are still developing story, the actors are still figuring out the best way to interact, and they’re all paying close attention to see how the audience responds to the park.
Overall, though, the park gives you permission to play. For an evening or two you’re immersed in a different world. You choose how you interact with this world, and the world chooses how it interacts with you.
Immediately upon leaving the first night Ian and I discussed strategy on what we’d do the second night. Were the knights to be trusted? Should we seek out the Fairy Princess, as Suds recommended us to do? What’s the deal with the vampires, and who should we ask about them, because they sure as hell weren’t going to give us any information.
We found ourselves pouring over podcasts and the Reddit forums. We discussed in earnest the park. We planned our second trip out there for their Christmas season, because once you step into Evermore how could you ever, truly leave?
We were also lucky enough to speak with the creative team behind the park. We ran into Bretschneider across the street from Evermore, at The Grid, his future theme park he’s also developing. He admitted that it’s a struggle to let people know what the park is about, so they aren’t quite breaking even on their expenses yet.
The same went for their Chief Creative Officer Josh Shipley and Head of Operations Crysta Sapp, who are extremely proud of their work but scratching their heads as to how to let more people know what they have going on.
Evermore is special, and it’d be hard for anyone who walks into it to feel otherwise.
Here’s wishing them all the success in the world.
