The Square Plans to Turn Times Square Into the World's Greatest Stage
The Square is a new multi-use entertainment venue in Times Square built to merge live performance with digital spectacle, spearheaded by Jeff Marks, founder and CEO of Innovative Partnerships Group, who brings three decades of sports and entertainment experience to the project. At its center is an 18,000-square-foot 8K LED wall that physically opens to reveal a performance stage — a design Marks compares to "Coachella turned vertically," stacking performance space, hospitality areas, retail, and immersive activations across multiple floors.
To work around Times Square's strict noise ordinances, the venue built proprietary audio technology called Square Stream, which streams sound wirelessly to attendees' earbuds via a QR code rather than relying on amplified speakers.
The strategy leans directly on location: Times Square draws roughly 80 million visitors a year, giving The Square a built-in daily audience of more than 250,000 people — a figure Marks calls unmatched anywhere on Earth. Madonna's opening performance drew over 50,000 fans in person and streamed globally through Grindr and YouTube, with Post Malone, Shakira, Jungkook, and Charli XCX among the artists lined up next. The ambition, per Marks, is turning one iconic Times Square night a year into multiple iconic weekends, year-round.
Originally posted on SPIN Magazine →