One of Bristol’s biggest visitor attractions is facing a potentially expensive court case after an American firm began legal action claiming they had breached their copyright and designs.
Wake The Tiger has welcomed more than a quarter of a million visitors since it opened in St Philip’s Marsh in Bristol back in July 2022, with young and old going through its ‘out of this world walk-through labyrinth of exploration’. But now a firm called Meow Wolf, which operates five similar interactive and immersive art installation venues in the United States, has filed a lawsuit in a UK court claiming Wake The Tiger has stolen its intellectual property.
Wake The Tiger said it ‘strongly disputes’ the claim, and said they believed the legal action is ‘unfounded and an aggressive tactic by a much larger’ American business with rapid expansion plans.
Little detail is known yet about the basis for Meow Wolf’s claim. The firm has hired a UK legal team called Waterfront Solicitors, and issued a ‘Part 7’ intellectual property claim covering copyright and design right. Wake The Tiger has acknowledged the claim and engaged its own law firm, and the case was registered as ‘active’ with the UK courts, although it is understood an initial hearing has not yet been held.
There are three claimants against Wake The Tiger Ltd – the Meow Wolf company itself, which is based in Santa Fe in New Mexico, and two of its local venues – in Denver and Las Vegas.
What is Wake The Tiger?
Wake The Tiger has been one of Bristol’s biggest post-Covid success stories since it opened in the summer of 2022. Set up in what was a disused factory building, the team behind it claimed it to be ‘the world’s first Amazement Park’, and visitors said they had not been to anything quite like it before, describing it as ‘mind-blowing and magical’.
Wake The Tiger is an ‘immersive, multi-sensory art installation experience’, where visitors walk through a series of chambers, rooms and art work, which ultimately tell a story of a world whose environment is under threat.
So successful has Wake The Tiger been that it secured investment to double in size in the winter of 2023-24, and after relaunching with an expanded venue, now occupies two levels and more than 40 ‘immersive environments’.
What is Meow Wolf?
An American immersive art experience venue, Meow Wolf has five permanent ‘interactive art museums’ in the US – in Houston and Grapevine in Texas, Denver, Las Vegas and the original attraction at Santa Fe. The idea has been a big success in the US too, and the company recently announced multi-million pound plans to open a sixth in 2026 in Los Angeles.
The US firm began in 2008 as a small collective of artists in Santa Fe who shared ‘an interest in publicly displaying their works and developing their skills together’. “This collaborative approach blossomed into Meow Wolf’s distinctive style of immersive maximalist environments that encourage audience-driven experiences,” the firm said.
The Meow Wolf experiences in the US are large – the one in Denver fills four storeys of its building – walk-through ‘mesmerising, interactive artscapes’, and each is very different, telling separate ‘non-linear’ stories, using artworks, exhibits and interactive displays from local artists.
Meow Wolf says it ‘opens portals of possibility’. “We redefine the paradigm of art and storytelling to make a positive difference in the world,” the firm said.
What does Wake The Tiger say?
Wake The Tiger was set up by the same Bristol-based creative team behind Boomtown Festival, and in a statement, the team said they strongly disputed the allegation that they had stolen the intellectual property, copyright or design right from Meow Wolf.
“We take this matter seriously and want to clarify that we strongly dispute these claims,” a spokesperson told Bristol Live. “Wake The Tiger has always operated with the utmost integrity and we stand by the originality and creativity of our immersive experience.
“As an independently-owned local attraction, we are deeply rooted in Bristol’s community and culture. Our vision has always been to create a unique, homegrown experience that reflects the innovation and artistry of the UK alternative art scene. While Meow Wolf is a large, US-based corporation, we are a passionate and independent team that proudly supports local artists and creators.
“The creative ideas and evolving narrative for Wake The Tiger were born out of an extension of 15 years of creative development within the UK’s underground art scene. We work extensively with artists from Bristol and further afield to create unique celebrations and experiences and have been making pioneering immersive street scenes, art from scrap, magical forests and secret doors into other worlds, all linked up by a continual narrative, for a long time.
“We believe this legal action is unfounded and an aggressive tactic by a much larger business who have made it very clear in their communications that they are poised for rapid expansion. We are confident that the case will demonstrate that we have not infringed upon any intellectual property and our focus remains on delivering an extraordinary and distinct experience to our visitors and continuing to celebrate the incredible talent within Bristol’s creative scene.”
Bristol Live has contacted Meow Wolf and a response is awaited.