Chris Blue Returns Home With Bandit Lites

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE – Even after being crowned the winner of NBC’s Emmy-winning smash show The Voice, Chris Blue is the same humble, thankful person from Knoxville, Tennessee, and to show his appreciation to the city that raised him, Blue performed at the historic Tennessee Theatre, where tickets sold out in five minutes, and two additional shows had to be added, only to have all three shows sell out in minutes. Bandit Lites, whose world headquarters is based in Knoxville, was tapped to provide the lighting package for the special event. 

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NEW YORK – Barbizon Lighting Company’s CEO, Jonathan Resnick, died Sept. 28, the company noted. He led the company that his father, Sam Resnick, co-founded with Sid Bloom 70 years ago after working in broadcast news and studying at Brown University.

NEW YORK – A pair of oversized gun-shaped scenic elements and supporting truss toppled forward and on top of Marilyn Manson during his concert at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Sept. 30. Band and crew members quickly lifted the scenery off the performer, who was taken to a hospital on a stretcher. Reports noted that Manson’s shows that had been slated for Oct. 2 (Boston) through Oct. 14 (Houston) would be postponed and rescheduled at unspecified dates.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — For the U.S. citizens on the island of Puerto Rico, Hurricane Irma was bad. Even though the eye of the storm did not hit the island as it passed by on Sept. 7, the storm was powerful enough and close enough to leave more than one million residents without power and three fatalities in its wake. But then came Hurricane Maria on Sept. 20, which was worse. Its eyewall made a direct hit, ripping off roofs with its Category 4 winds as it scraped across the 100-mile-wide island, defoliated the landscape, destroying crops and knocking out power for almost 100 percent of the island’s 3.4 million residents.

DETROIT – Covering 650,000 square feet and rising eight stories above the ground, the new Little Caesars Arena stands as a symbol of the comeback taking place in America’s “Motor City.” On Sept. 12, Detroit’s hometown hero Kid Rock christened the multi-use complex by performing its inaugural concert as part of a six night home stand that sold out in one day. 

SAN FRANCISCO – It’s summer in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.  200,000 people are enjoying three days of live Rock & Roll, and more. . .  No, it’s not the Summer of Love, 1967, it’s the tenth annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, where the crowds are cleaner, and Flower Power is now a sustainable, green business.  And flying high over the stage is a festoon lighting system featuring IMS DMX-controlled RGBWW lamps.

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PITTSBORO, NC – Parades aren’t the first thing that come to mind when you think of outdoor music festivals, but this didn’t stop members of the alt rock group Big Something from taking alto saxophones and trombones in hand and marching through picturesque Shakori Hills Park to kick off their namesake Big What Festival.  Joined by a meandering line of other musicians, the band mingled with the crowd as they worked their way through a breezy series of tunes, setting the tone for three days of eclectic and engaging music, with an impressive collection of updated psychedelic art in the background. 

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