Best Special Event Food & Beverage Program: BodeGAGA Experience at Climate Pledge Arena (Excellence In Concessions Awards 2026)

For Lady Gaga’s three-night run at Climate Pledge Arena, the team – led by Brian Carriveau, VP F&B and Retail, and Rosie Selle, VP of Marketing – set out to create a concert menu more akin to an experience. Inspired by Gaga’s New York roots, Climate Pledge Arena and concessions partner
Delaware North paid tribute to the bodegas synonymous with NYC culture by transforming the Seattle venue’s largest marketplace into “BodeGAGA.”

“There’s a lot of creativity in activations for sports franchises, and when we have an opportunity like this – a three-night run with Lady Gaga – we knew we’d have an incredibly excited crowd,” Selle said. “We wanted something that would resonate with the audience and tie into the artist. Brian worked some magic with vendors he found, and that’s how BodeGAGA came together.”

Climate Pledge Arena partnered with Experience Research Lab using themed décor, visual language and design to transform the marketplace into a reflection of Lady Gaga’s roots and artistic identity. The concept went beyond mere aesthetics. Culinary and creative teams reimagined the menu, swapping usual arena eats for elevated bodega classics: chopped cheese sandwiches, chicken parm tenders, loaded disco fries, truffle “paparazzi” fries (another nod to Gaga), gyros, falafel, and black & white cookies.

“With Lady Gaga doing such a limited run, we wanted to show real support for her,” Carriveau said. “I’d heard that on tour she’s very proud
of being a New Yorker, and that her chef sometimes makes her a chopped cheese. We have a large marketplace, so we thought this could be fun. There’s a company we’d worked with before on another creative gift; we reached out, and they got so excited they held up a book on their desk about the bodegas of New York. They said, ‘We love this, let’s do it,’ and went all out – driving an hour north of Seattle to find an old deli awning and bring it back to make the bodega look authentic.”

Selle added, “I’d be remiss not to call out Delaware North on food and beverage, too; they were just as excited. It takes a lot to change over a concession stand for one concert night, let alone three, and to build a new menu and shift how they operate. I have to give them a ton of credit.”

Fans were posting nonstop about the activation online – and Selle notes that one of their core pillars is creating a fan experience people can’t get anywhere else: “Fans travel for shows; they don’t have to come to us, so when they do, we want them to experience something unique. That ethos is also what we point to when asking for a budget for things like this…. Every artist’s show and merch looks fairly similar city to city, so we focus on what we can control and make it a little extra, so next time that tour goes on sale, they choose us.”