Clay Paky Sharpys Light Up Hollydazzle

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — The 2011 edition of Hollydazzle, an annual lighting and fireworks show staged at Newport News’ City Center at Oyster Point, featured a 45-foot-high LED Christmas tree, a fireworks display and light effects from 20 of Clay Paky’s Sharpy light fixtures supplied by Main Light Industries, Wilmington, DE. The Sharpys swept across the five-acre fountain where the fireworks originated and shot their beams into the sky to the accompaniment of holiday music and the pyrotechnics. Kevin Hogan served as lighting programmer/designer for Hollydazzle, which was sponsored by the Newport News Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism. The event was seen by close to 30,000 spectators.

“In the past, we’ve used other lights, but this year, Sharpys were available,” said Wade Shaner, lighting director with Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Entertainment & Production, which was brought on board by show producers Pyrotecnico. “We were going to use much bigger lights and are glad we didn’t. We wanted a fast, tight beam fixture, and Sharpy proved to be a kick-ass little light.”

Shaner deployed the 20 Sharpys in four positions, splitting the package so each position had five fixtures. The pods sat on piers just above water level in the fountain, which measures 400 feet in diameter. One of the piers also contained the LED Christmas tree.

“You could see 600 feet of beam at some points, and the pods were 400 feet away from each other,” Shaner noted. “The Sharpys were as bright as those huge one-can Skytrackers, without having any mass to move. When we shone the Sharpys on the tree, you almost couldn’t see the tree lights.” Shaner also credited the Sharpys as “unbelievably fast.”