HERE to stay: Sacramento entertainment, hospitality group launches rebrand

Sacramento event production and hospitality group HOF, short for Hall of Fame, has rebranded as HERE, its founders said.

Business partners and HOF founders Tony Christ and Robbie Metcalf said the rebrand centers on creating in-person social experiences and entertainment events in and beyond Sacramento.

The two operate Tiger, a bar, restaurant and nightclub at 722 K St. near DoCo, which opened in 2019.

Over the past decade, they have partnered with local businesses and city officials to host festivals, concerts and block parties across the region.

“This next brand is going to be intentional about movement, about freedom, about being in different places while still showcasing the local culture,” Christ said. “So it’s still going to be everything that you love about HOF (and) the things we’ve done but it’s just going to be through a different lens.”

HERE stands for Human Experience Reserve Earth, the friends said. They said the new brand prioritizes creating invaluable, in-person experiences that extend past Sacramento borders.

HOF, they said, focused on highlighting Sacramento and bringing awareness to a city where people said there’s nothing to do. With HERE, they aim to take what they’ve built and expand it to surpass the capital region with the development of their HERE Passport App.

The app, now in development, will start in Sacramento and is designed to help users discover events in their cities and offer members access to clubs and venues.

“You’ll see it branded quite a few different ways ... with different meanings for each event,” Christ said. “But it’ll all be centered around that human connection.”

“We really want to be intentional about doing something that’s like preserving human interaction, in real life,” Metcalf said.

By collaborating with other business owners, they hope to improve how people experience local events.

Metcalf described it as giving people “VIP access to their favorite places in the city.” The HERE Passport app has been in development for nearly two years and will soon begin beta testing, they said.

“We wanted something fresh,” Metcalf said. “Something that works with where our dream, where our vision is headed”.

How the brand originated

Christ and Metcalf launched their original venture in 2008, shortly after graduating high school.

“At the time when we were creating it, I think the energy behind it was, there’s nothing cool for us to do here in Sacramento, so let’s create it,” Metcalf said. “Let’s make this a place that we’re proud of and create experiences here that people enjoy.”

It started with house parties and grew into warehouse events before the duo began collaborating with local officials and venue owners to host larger gatherings.

HOF Day, a festival and concert that debuted in 2015, drew thousands to a Sacramento block party featuring local performers. The event returned in 2024 after a seven-year hiatus.

In 2019, they opened Tiger, which has hosted after-parties for touring and local artists.

They said HOF aimed to bring people together through Sacramento culture and pride.

“Whether it was Sacramento memes or Sacramento events or comedy, whatever it is,” Metcalf said. “I feel like we kind of did what we needed to do.”

“We’ve been in this game for a long time,” Christ said. “We’ve been producing things in Sacramento since after high school. The brand that we had created during that time was just really aligned with who we were at that time. We’re raging, we’re partying, it was just a different time period than it is now.”

HERE evolving

Now in their 30s, and both sober for eight years, Christ and Metcalf say they’ve shifted focus to exploring new cultures and experiences that better reflect their current values.

“(We) have worked a lot more closely over the last few years together,” Christ said. “Leading the brand positioning, the ideas and the concepts in a way that we felt like was in alignment with us. We have been traveling a lot as well, so we felt like now was the time to start fresh, with all of our knowledge that we have built up over the last almost 20 years.”

They said they still plan to highlight Sacramento’s energy while expanding their work elsewhere.

HERE’s first official event was the Super Secret Silent Disco inside Exhibit I at the California State Fair, which debuted July 11.

Inside the darkened room, spectators were greeted by colorful lights and a sign reading “Just Be Here.”

The 17-day exhibit featured up to 50 Sacramento-based DJs spinning across three stations with hip-hop, R&B, house, EDM and classic sets.

“We’ve just been really head down in Sacramento for quite a few years, intentionally,” Christ said. “We’re just being a little bit more intentional about spreading out, going out, experiencing things outside of Sacramento, just to keep our creativity strong.”

As they continue building the HERE brand, Metcalf said their focus is on “being here, being present in the moment, connecting with people in real time.”

“We’re giving our full attention to what we have in front of us right now — the State Fair, Tiger, building this HERE Passport app — and just doing things one at a time,” Metcalf said.

Christ added that their priority remains on the work ahead.

This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.