From mid-January to mid-February 2026, the middle of QV Melbourne had a lawn, a big screen, and two dozen red bean bags with QV LIVE printed on them. First it was the Australian Open, then an outdoor cinema. The bean bags were ours.
It was a short job with a hard deadline. The screen went on when the tennis started and the bean bags had to be in the square, filled and ready, before the first match.
QV Melbourne and QV Square
QV takes up a whole city block on the corner of Swanston and Lonsdale Streets, running back to Russell and Little Lonsdale, right next to the State Library. The site was the old Melbourne Hospital, which later became the Queen Victoria Hospital. The hospital closed in 1987 and most of the old buildings came down in the early 1990s.
QV opened in late 2003 as a mix of shops, restaurants, offices and apartments, with new laneways named after people from the hospital's history. In the middle of it all is QV Square, an open-air square behind the heritage Queen Victoria Women's Centre. It's one of the few open public spaces in that part of the CBD, which is what makes it work for events.
QV Live
QV Live is the program of free open-air events QV runs in the square. Over summer 2026 it started with the tennis. From 18 January to 1 February the Australian Open was on the big screen every day from 11am until late, with food from the QV restaurants and red bean bags on the grass under scalloped umbrellas. After the tennis, the square turned into an outdoor cinema from 2 to 15 February, and the same bean bags stayed on the grass for the movies.
What we supplied
24 Media Lounge bean bags in red, with the QV LIVE logo screen printed in light blue (PMS 277) on the back of the backrest. Twenty of them were custom-made for the job. We sent a print proof first, so the logo size and position were signed off before anything was sewn. The logo on these is 250mm wide by 204mm high, big enough to read from across the square.
The Media Lounge is made from 1680D polyester. It's water-resistant and UV-protected, which matters when the bean bags are sitting out in a Melbourne summer from 11am until late. Each one has a removable inner liner, so the beans stay in the liner and the cover can come off for cleaning.
They went to our filling partners in Melbourne first, then out to QV's loading dock, filled and ready to go.
Why the Media Lounge
For watching a screen, the Media Lounge is hard to beat. The angled backrest holds you in a reclined position, so you can sit through a five-set match or a two-hour movie without your back giving up halfway through. They sit low and wide, so the people behind can still see the screen.
They're also light enough for one person to pick up and move, which helps when the square needs resetting at the end of the day.
The logo placement does the rest. With everyone facing the screen, the backs of the bean bags face everyone walking through the square. Two dozen red bean bags with QV LIVE across the back, on green grass in the middle of the city, are hard to miss.
If your event is in January, order in October
The thing I'd pass on from this job is timing. Custom-made, branded bean bags normally take 8 to 10 weeks, and a lot of the supply chain shuts down over Christmas and New Year. The QV Live logo proof was approved in mid-October, and the bean bags were delivered to QV in January, ahead of bump-in.
So if you're planning a summer event, here's what I'd do:
- Lock in the artwork early. Send us your logo with the exact size you want, and approve the print proof quickly.
- Allow for the Christmas shutdown. For a January event, October is not too early.
- Order all of them at once. Custom colours are made in batches, and bean bags made in the same batch match each other exactly.
- Ask for them filled. For commercial orders we can have them filled locally and delivered ready to use, depending on quantity and location.
Planning something similar?
Have a look at our custom and branded bean bags, the Media Lounge, my festival seating guide and why custom bean bags work as advertising. For more outdoor screens, see the bean bags we supplied to The Star's Skyline Cinema in Brisbane and Rooftop Movies in Perth, and for a permanent setup, Howard Smith Wharves.
If you're in Melbourne, our Melbourne bean bags page covers next-day delivery and what Melbourne buys from us.
Call me on 1800 888 911 with your event dates and numbers.
Debra DeBoer
Bean Bags R Us
