‘Experience economy’ and ‘event culture’ are two concepts and phenomena that represent the tight interrelation between culture and economy. These two areas have always been closely linked, but in the past 25 years their relationship has been extended. These are times where cultural institutions such as museums and libraries communicate their relevance affectively, where cities, universities and even social movements become increasingly aware of their brand value, and where individuals search for meaning in their lives by actively investing in intense, life changing experiences. This paper begins by giving an overview of the literature that has conceptualised this new mode of economic organisation. The three classical perspectives identified come from marketing-, consumer-, and cultural- studies. We move on to argue that the ‘experience economy’ is more than just a market phenomenon, but that it actually represents a new way of being in the world. We believe that this ontological shift affords both the risk of novel expressions of power that operate through the manipulation of the body and its movement, but also, the opportunity for sociocultural and political transformation that in the same manner, works by potentiating the body towards a specific ethos. We conceptualise these processes within the shift from ‘culture’ to ‘event-culture’ that is evident both in the cultural industry in a strict sense, but also more broadly, in the increasingly hyper-stimulated and intense realm of the everyday. We move onto highlight three critical readings as well as three modes of critique within the experience economy and event culture. We conclude that these phenomena can be used as a) a marketing strategy, b) an analytical lens and c) a way of re-enchanting the world that may well be political.