After a sell out in-person return in 2021, MAD//Fest has today (1 April) announced the decision to re-brand as FAD//Fest and launch the world’s first festival dedicated to fads.

The move will see the festival transition from its traditional focus of marketing, advertising and disruption to a new horizon of emerging fads, where anything is possible (for a short time).

The launch of FAD//Fest will see a complete overhaul of the festival experience. Drawing inspiration from Dutch urban design, pedestrians and e-scooter users will be able to seamlessly navigate the event. Bars will exclusively serve artisan plant-based kombucha, ensuring that adland's FAD//Festival go’ers get their fix of antioxidants after years of overdoing it at global events. 

FAD//Fest will initially serve rainbow bagels from its electric food trucks before switching to a dynamic real-time menu, where what’s served will depend on whatever is trending on TikTok at that time. All food tokens will come in the form of an NFT.

Traditional theatre-style seating will be replaced with restorative cold water seaweed baths so attendees can enjoy inspiring content in total relaxation and in the knowledge that they’ll look and feel 10 years younger from attending FAD//Fest. After attendees finish their cold water seaweed immersion, they’ll also receive a garish dry robe with an inspiring message, so they can feel like they’re dressed in a winter duvet and blend in seamlessly with the cool kids buying bagels on Brick Lane. 

Face-to-face meetings over a beer will naturally be replaced through immersive metaverse communities.

“We believe in meta. That’s why all meetings at FAD//Fest will be conducted in the metaverse. I mean, who doesn’t want to get their tentacles into a conversation about tech stacks where you’re a giant squid and you’re speaking to an avatar of a red squirrel?,” said Dan Brain, FAD’Fest’s Chief Ideation Officer and Office Fool.

“You’d be MAD to miss FAD. The possibilities are endless. Whether these trends are here to stay doesn’t really matter. That’s the beauty of fads. We’ll never have to try to force ourselves to enjoy the same conversation twice,” added Brain.