I’ve been to dozens of nightclubs, arena shows, and festivals over the years. I never once stopped to ask who engineered the feeling.

That changed when I sat down with Kris Mullins, CEO of CryoFX, a company that has spent more than fifteen years doing something most people in entertainment don’t even realize needs doing: building the systems responsible for the moments guests remember long after they’ve forgotten everything else about the night.

You know the ones. The burst of cold air that hits your face right as the beat drops. The towering plumes of CO2 rising in sync with the music. The haze that catches a beam of light and turns a room into something you can’t quite describe but absolutely don’t want to leave. Those aren’t accidents. Someone designed them, engineered them, got them permitted, and made sure they fired at exactly the right second.

In most cases, that someone is CryoFX.

The company’s work spans theme parks, arenas, touring productions, festivals, and experiential activations, but the most visible chapter of its story has been written on the Las Vegas Strip. TAO Beach Dayclub at The Venetian. The Silver Knights Arena. And most recently, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the nearly $4 billion resort that opened with some of the highest expectations the city had seen in years.

For Fontainebleau’s 2024 New Year’s Eve celebration, CryoFX built something that went well past what most nightclubs even attempt. Massive overhead truss circles suspended above the dance floor created what guests kept describing as a “spaceship effect.” 

Synchronized CO2 blasts hit at key moments throughout the performances. The lighting integration didn’t just complement the effects, it evolved with them, making the space feel different from one hour to the next. The system wasn’t decoration. It was architecture.

When I asked Mullins how he thinks about that kind of project, he didn’t talk about equipment.

“Designing these ‘experiences’ is a gift and blessing,” he told me. “Touching on the senses in person while adding the 6th element of emotion into the mix, we’re elevating the experience to a totally new level which complements, in some instances, my work as a marketer. This is what a true 6D Immersive Storyteller does in live environments, while keeping true to psychology-driven storytelling in my other roles with my marketing agency as a cognitive behavioral marketing scientist. Whether on screen or in person, emotion is what people remember and what drives actions, including recommendations!”

That dual identity, effects designer and marketing scientist, is what makes CryoFX’s approach harder to copy than it might look. Most companies in this space start with a product catalog and work backward. CryoFX starts with a question: how should a guest feel when they walk into the room? What moment deserves amplification? How do the effects complement the architecture rather than compete with it? The equipment comes after the answer.

The other thing that separates them, and this surprised me when I started digging into it, is compliance. Special effects systems exist inside a heavily regulated environment. Fire departments, building officials, insurance requirements, evolving safety standards. A system can be visually extraordinary and still fail to get approved, or fail to operate consistently once it does. CryoFX has built a significant part of its reputation on navigating that complexity, consulting on fire prevention requirements, installation standards, and permitting in parallel with the creative work. The audience sees fifteen seconds of spectacle. The team behind it put in hundreds of hours to make those fifteen seconds possible.

The product side is broad: CO2 systems, fog, haze, liquid nitrogen, cold spark machine effects, integrated combinations, and patented CO2 technologies the company developed specifically for venues where standard approaches hit limitations. They manufacture, sell, rent, and service all of it.

But the product is almost beside the point. What Mullins is really selling, and what audiences are really buying, is the feeling.

“Think about how uneventful nightclubs, sporting events, or theme parks would be without any special effects? No haze, no cold sparks, nothing on the drops. Yeah, pretty lame I agree. They literally make the event & night what it is!”

He’s right. And the venues that understand that are the ones calling CryoFX.