At this point, we’re just counting down the days until Good Omens lands on Amazon Prime Video. The cast—which boasts Michael Sheen, David Tennant, and Jon Hamm—is perfect; the first trailer looks excellent; it’s a Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett story; and it’s clear that Amazon is thrilled with the talent and quality they have on their hands. That was evident at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, which played host to a Good Omens activation during its opening weekend that was truly out of this world.
Nerdist attended an exclusive press preview of the Garden of Earthly Delights on the opening day of the festival, a magical, walled-off section of downtown Austin that felt like stepping right into another realm. Angels greeted us at the gates, and right away the giant Good Omens logo marked our arrival.
The Garden of Earthly Delights was loaded with different ways to pamper yourself to distract from the impending end of the world. Highlights included the Hellhound Puppy Pen, a tented area where you could pet, hold, and interact with tiny puppies currently available for adoption from the Austin Animal Center. Look at these little rascals!
The Garden also had stations dedicated to hairstyling, hand massages, and manicures, so you could sit down, relax, enjoy a selection of free beer or wine, and take in the music wafting through the activation, provided by a band of angels playing harps and strings. All beauty cabanas were provided by butterLONDON, Cosmedix, and SexyHair.
Of course, every time you would start to feel settled, something would come interject to remind you that you were still at a party for Good Omens, meaning the apocalypse was ever nigh. A cultish group of sign-carriers would occasionally walk by shouting things like “the end is nigh!” and asking if you were prepared for inevitable death. At one point, a gang of leather-clad motorcyclists ushered in the Four Apocalyptic Horsemen.
Other delights at the Garden included a replication of the A.Z. Fell & Co. bookstore and a life-sized model of Crowley’s 1926 Bentley that visitors could sit in for photos. All in all, it was one of the most exciting places to be during the opening weekend of SXSW, and an impressive effort from Amazon Prime to continue to drum up excitement for Good Omens. If the final results is anything like the activation, the show is destined to be an apocalyptically great time.
Images: Amazon Prime Video