QEII Centre

Forty Years, Reimagined Overnight

The QEII Centre marked its fortieth birthday in July 2026 with an invite-only Summer Showcase for around 250 event professionals, agencies and corporate clients – taking guests on a journey from 1986 through to the future of events.

Event Trees led the design and delivery, working with sister company Eventologists, and Hollywood Monster produced the printed elements: just over 262 square metres of print across more than a hundred separate pieces, transforming three floors of a live Westminster building that had to be handed back, fully operational, the following morning.

This wasn’t an audience who came for the party – it was an audience who came to assess the venue. Every guest in that room has stood in a marquee watching an edge lift, and spent the evening around a metre from the work, in full light, with no stage between them and the print.

Venue

QEII Centre

Location

London (Westminster)

Service

Large Format Event Print | Themed Environment Production | Exhibition & Event Graphics | On-Site Installation Support

Works Included

  • 262m² of large format print across 100+ separate pieces
  • A 13.5m x 2.44m Pac-Man wall, printed in neon on our SwissQprint Kudu
  • A 13m ceiling graphic, plus two further walls at 12.2m and 11m
  • Sixteen printed Foamex panels lining “the tunnel” – the connecting corridor tracing four decades of hardware, from cassette tapes to cash machines
  • Forty printed floor graphics in Utack Gel, one per year of the Centre’s history – walked on all evening, lifted clean the next morning
  • Bulkhead panels using SwissQprint Kudu texture capability, so rivets and recessed ports sit physically raised off the board
  • A four-tier birthday cake built from nine printed Foamex shapes, the largest 1.58m across
  • Full wrap of the front desk and reception, lift lobby, and washroom walls
  • Cut-to-shape Pac-Man ghosts on 5mm Foamex, plus photo moments and an 80s taxi backdrop
  • A future-facing room with teleport tube and portal photo backdrops, a floor portal graphic, and VR signage
  • Two Hollywood Monster installers on-site for two days, working alongside the Event Trees crew on the build and final finishes

“Forty years is a huge feat for any venue, and the QEII has always been iconic, so it is no surprise this year’s Summer Showcase was worth marking properly. Event Trees had the vision for it and we know how they build, so we could make the parts to suit the way they were going to put it together. That audience was a metre away from the work all evening, which is a different job to something you see from across a hall. Helping the Centre put its own history under people’s feet and in people’s eyelines was an incredible thing to be asked to do, and we are looking forward to the next one with the Event Trees team”

Simon McKenzie, CEO, Hollywood Monster

 

“We’ve worked with Hollywood Monster on enough projects now that we don’t have to explain how we build. That matters on something like this. Three floors, forty years to cover in one evening, and a Westminster building that had to be back to normal the next morning. They made the parts to suit the way we assemble, everything arrived ready to go, and having two of their installers with us for the final finishes meant the last few hours were about detail rather than problem solving. It’s a proper working relationship, and you feel the benefit of it on the difficult jobs.”

Sital Chandarana, Managing Director, Eventologists and Event Trees

WhatsApp Image 2026 08 14 at 10.23.58

An Immersive Environment, Built to Last One Night

Working with the client’s design vision, Hollywood Monster translated four decades of history into a fully immersive, close-quarters environment – precision-cut, panelled and sequenced in Birmingham before travelling to Event Trees for kitting, then on to a live Westminster building with a single overnight install window.

THREE THINGS THAT MADE IT WORK

Specialist Print Finishes

Neon inks on our SwissQprint Kudu gave the Pac-Man wall and corridor a genuine backlit glow, while raised texture printing gave the future room’s bulkheads physical depth under LED.

Precision Fabrication

From the nine-piece birthday cake to the contour-cut Pac-Man ghosts, every edge was cut to shape and finished for a metre’s viewing distance – where the cut line is part of the object, not just how it was made.

On-Site Installation Support

Two Hollywood Monster installers joined the Event Trees crew for two days on-site, handling the final finishes and trims in a live building with no room to work it out as they went.

QEII 6
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Get in touch today to discuss your next themed environment or large format event build.

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