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The August 2017 Digital Edition

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August 2017

ELO - Alone in the Universe, Wembley photo by Kris Goodman

ELO at Wembley Stadium

Jeff Lynne’s Spaceship Rises Again on Stageco Tower

His aviator shades, curly mop and beard may appear to be cryogenically frozen in time, but the renaissance of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra continues to move ever forward in popularity and — with assistance from Stageco — sheer physical size, as witnessed by 70,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley Stadium on June 24.

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Lighting truss articulates to create multiple looks for the numerous acts. Getty Images courtesy ARS

K-Love Awards

LabeLive and Atlanta Rigging Systems Raise the Roof at the Grand Ole Opry

The K-Love Fan Awards is the premiere “Ultimate fan experience” for the Christian Contemporary Music industry hosted at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. The event is an opportunity for fans to see 22 of their favorite artists perform and accept awards on the historic main stage.

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All Photos by Joe Kenemore

A Complete Reset

Design Team Reboots Corporate Event Conventions with In-the-Round Cisco Live!

The purpose of this year’s Cisco Live! event, a multi-day educational event for IT and networking professionals staged within the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas in late June, was to introduce a radically new networking product. So it makes sense that, when the event’s organizers turned to Lightswitch and Go! Experience Design, they were hoping to provide attendees with an experience that also defied expectations.

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The curved LED display moved up and down to reveal company VIPs and musical acts. Photos courtesy Leo Events

Walmart Annual Shareholders Meeting

There’s nothing that comes close to the Annual Walmart Shareholders Meeting as employees gather from around the world in Fayetteville, Arkansas to celebrate all things Walmart, the most profitable retailer in the world since 1988. Founder Sam Walton held the first shareholders meeting in 1970 when he presided over five others at a coffee shop table in Bentonville, the company’s headquarters. Each year the event grew, and since 1994, it has been held on the University of Arkansas campus in Bud Walton Arena, home to the Razorbacks basketball teams. This year, Walmart associates and shareholders filled the arena.

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Photos courtesy Blueshift Design

Alan Jackson ‘Honky Tonk Highway’ Tour

With 16 studio albums and nearly 60 million records sold worldwide, the multi-platinum recording artist Alan Jackson has solidified himself as one of country music’s most iconic talents. In a career that spans three decades, Jackson is still hard at work touring the nation for his dedicated fans. Needing a new production design to support the current “Honky Tonk Highway Tour,” the management team once again enlisted the creativity of Craig Rutherford of Blueshift Design who, in turn, called upon Nashville-based tour provider Elite Multimedia.

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U2 performed at Bonnaroo this year

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, now in its 16th year on the 700-acre site in Manchester, TN opened on an historical note with U2 as the opening night performer. It marked the first time in their 41-year career playing a festival in America, and only the second time they have ever performed on a festival stage. More than 65,000 people attended the four day event.

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Toucan Productions helped transform a rural Texas ranch into a musical playground. Photos - aLIVE Coverage, courtesy Euphoria Music Festival

From Field to Festival

The Sixth Annual Euphoria Music & Camping Festival

On any other day at Carson Creek Ranch, one might hear crickets chirping in the grove of pecan trees, while cattle grazed and horses neighed under the hot Austin, TX sun. But for four days in April, its 60 acres of fields along the banks of the Colorado River were transformed into an entertainment venue with the Euphoria Music & Camping Festival.

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All photos by Kevin M. Mitchell

Breaking Day with Norah Jones

A Well-Crafted Backdrop, Perfectly Lit, Creates a Palette of Possibilities

Creating textures. Accenting moods. A woman with a beautiful voice at a Yamaha grand piano with a fantastic band behind her. All in a day’s work for lighting designer Steve Baird as he works with a perfect backdrop and just the right amount of lights (not one too many or one too few).

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Roy Bennett's pods flew in fixtures from the Motherland. Photos and text by Steve Jennings.

Rammstein 2017 Tour

For those fans lucky enough to see Rammstein’s tour on their limited 2017 U.S. run, one might ask — was it hotter that day in Las Vegas at temperatures of 110 degrees F. outside, or hotter on stage inside the T-Mobile Arena where the band’s pyro is the biggest of any band in the world? We spoke with the tour’s production and lighting designer Roy Bennett, associate lighting designer and programmer Jason Baeri, production manager and ffp managing director Nicolai Sabottka, pyro/SFX crew chief Nick Thompsett and the tour’s two lighting directors, Faren Matern and Bertil Mark.

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