Freeform and Popsugar have blessed us all by creating a pop-up Mermaid Museum immersive experience in Hollywood to promote the newest television series Siren—and it’s helping us all celebrate National Mermaid Day on March 29.
Free tickets for the Mermaid Museum were available online to fans and mermaid lovers. Upon arrival, all guests received a ticket to claim their Mermaid Swag (a beautiful reusable water bottle with scale pattern) and a tour of the museum. Fans—wearing colorful sequins, shell purses and scale-patterned leggings—were encouraged to follow the sounds of the sirens and walk through the interactive experience by writing postcards, looking at “old” mermaid artifacts and sharing your secret in a bottle.
As most pop-up Museums in Los Angeles (like The Museum of Ice Cream or Refinery 29 Rooms), the museum was made with Instagram in mind. There were so many beautiful spots to take photos, including a photo wall with coral, a pearl clam shell bed, and a bedded rocking chair with starfish and sea shells. The activations catered to all kinds of sea-loving mermaid fans. One stop included a ball pit that took photos to make a GIF of us having the time of our lives—and the walls of the exhibit were lined with silver and navy sequins.
The best part about the event was being able to see a real-life mermaid in person! Towards the end of the museum, there was a glass fish tank filled with water and a mermaid swimming around. It was really cool to see the technology behind it, as this was a real person and not some prop for the museum.
One attendee, who goes by Madeline Masquerade on Instagram, dresses up as mermaid for her job, entertaining kids at birthday parties and the like. She said a typical silicone mermaid tail, like the one worn by the museum’s siren, probably weighs 40 pounds. She said it’s not hard to swim in, except for her ankles, which carry the entire weight of the tail. Madeline Masquerade says most parents want her to dress as a sweet Ariel-type mermaid, but in the future she’d love to dress as a more frightening siren like the one at the Mermaid Museum.
For more mermaid magic, Siren airs on Freeform on March 29 (National Mermaid Day!).