There are many ways to describe the Hendrick’s Gin brand, but “boring” isn’t one of them. Over the years, the company has built a peculiar “Giniverse”—inspired by the unusual way its liquid is distilled—and an assortment of eccentric live experiences to match.
Take this year’s Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans, LA, where the Hendrick’s Time Traveler’s Tavern mega-bar experience enveloped members of the spirits industry in a bizarre world of paradoxical characters and concepts through a series of portals that “married together time and space,” like a Cosmic Disco, while maintaining the brand’s signature polish (Momentum Worldwide handled).
From the Time Traveler’s Tavern to Hendrick’s Undersea Imaginarium and Spa to the World’s Most Utterly Inefficient Cocktail Bar to cocktail lingerie, the brand has never wavered in its mission to “think outside the box, and roll with whatever idea, through our unusual, peculiar, wonky, outrageous filters,” says Vance Henderson, national ambassador at Hendrick’s Gin USA.
For a closer look inside the brand’s experiential cabinet of curiosities, we asked Henderson how he and his team find success keeping it weird.
Storytelling and Intimacy
Whether activating for consumers or industry pros, Hendrick’s prides itself on creating events that take attendees on an intimate journey where every strange little detail tells a story—and that narrative is often related to its newest gin expression.
Consider the brand’s multiyear, cabaret-inspired House of Wonders property, which traveled to multiple events, including Tales of the Cocktail. Visitors encountered everything from a Delightful Wall of Reflections to pinkie massages to a mermaid perched on a clam-shell float in the pool.
“The House of Wonders was created to stay true and harken back to what Hendrick’s had always done, which was an intimate, progressive, very clear storytelling experience, but also offer something to everyone who may not be able to make it to the smaller, more intimate experience, a bigger, higher-energy, more modern festival type of feel,” says Henderson. ‘All of these different cabinet expressions that we’re getting every year with Hendrick’s gave us an expanded universe and expanded bank to dig into, to bring to life.”
Leaps of Faith
Whether motivated by a creative idea or a company challenge, Hendrick’s is known for blazing event trails. Like in 2023, when the brand became the first to activate a large-scale daytime event during Tales of the Cocktail. The move was based on budget constraints, and ended up inspiring competitors to do the same.
“Daytime at Tales of the Cocktail was mainly rooted in the seminars, maybe some small happy hours or pop-ups, but it wasn’t anything as big as the night events. Clearly, it costs less to produce, it costs less to sponsor than a night event,” Henderson says. “And from 2023, having no major event competition, to 2025, there were so many day events that were huge. So people have seen over the years what Hendrick’s is able to do. We often kick the door open, and then they jump on.”
Unexpected Mashups
Hendrick’s outlandish Giniverse of characters and creative concepts is like something out of a “Star Wars” bar scene, but infused with the brand’s elevated charm. In fact, that’s where Hendrick’s drew inspiration for the Time Traveler’s Tavern. The brand is consistently searching for fresh ways to create a convergence of unlikely people and happenings in mismatched places.
The multiroom Time Traveler’s Tavern experience served as a free-flowing journey through various intergalactic portals, where attendees encountered a series of unexpected mashups, as well as top-tier bar teams whipping up craft cocktails. Even the background music featured a medieval-style band playing hip-hop songs.
Consider the Tropic Saloon, which was a combination of a tropical tiki bar and a Wild West tavern featuring a Western female character who carried a cucumber in her gun holster, and was simultaneously dressed as a flamingo. Or the Barricade, a mashup of the Roaring Twenties era with a Hendrick’s-themed carnival, featuring a cucumber-tossing game, a rosy ring toss, a tarot card reader, rose petal-picking, an oyster bar and the brand’s version of gambling. And over in the Sleepeasy Speakeasy, attendees had to wait in line to get into an experience spanning a big-band orchestra performance, a medieval-style feasting hall and a bed with a stuffed alligator on it.
“It was taking inspiration points, but then filtering them through: What are they in our world?” Henderson says. “People are blindfolded and walk through the door and sit down, and once that blindfold comes off, it’s something they just don’t expect. It’s like, ‘We’re in a bedroom, but it’s all these little two-top tables with roses and centerpieces, and then there’s a bed in the middle of this room. There’s an alligator in the damn bed, and the alligator’s in cucumber pajamas. None of this makes sense—but again, it makes sense for Hendrick’s. And that’s the beauty of it, they’re willing to go on the ride with us.”
Maximizing Budget and Resources
Even when the budget is tight, Hendrick’s doesn’t make concessions. Its peculiar personality is still at the core of its events and experiences, and the team finds creative ways to repurpose resources.
“If the theme was intergalactic this year because of budgets, we were like, how do we leverage something we already have going on, which was our Club Cucumber campaign, which is in essence, if Hendrick’s married a nightclub with a cucumber patch,” Henderson says. “It’s like, if the overall theme of this next party is outer space, and we’re limited on budget, we already have assets for the club, let’s take the club to outer space. And that then gave us the Cosmic Disco.”
Creature Comforts
Henderson says every experience Hendrick’s delivers is derived from its strategic storytelling and unconventional attitude, but that the brand never forgets the audience it’s catering to. With consumers, in particular, providing creature comforts in addition to a compelling narrative is key.
“There’s a lot of strategic thinking on, yes, telling a story with the experience and being rooted in Hendrick’s, but also the things that the consumers want,” he says. “They want swag. They want free things. They want air-conditioning. They want to be able to sit down. They want shade. They want crushable drinks. They want to be able to take photos. They want to create FOMO moments. They want to create memorable moments. So we try to answer for so many things, and that finally contributes to us creating something pretty amazing.”
Photo credit: Caitlyn Ridenour and Josh Brasted/Tales of the Cocktail
