AYRTONLIVE ISSUE 13: Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Welcome to AyrtonLIVE 13!

It’s been a busy year for Ayrton with more new products and more great projects from the many talented lighting designers who, we are delighted to say, choose to work with our lighting fixtures. Some of those projects feature in our latest issue of AyrtonLIVE13 which we are pleased to present to you.

We were very excited to have so many of our latest products showcased by lighting designer, Jerry Appelt at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon where over 700 Ayrton fixtures, including Mistral-TC, Ghibli, MiniPanel-FX, MagicDot-SX, MagicPanel-FX and NandoBeam-S6, formed a major part of the incredible show.

Our unique Ghibli has been adopted as a ‘must have’ by so many lighting designers already, with Kieren Healy choosing it for the US hit show, American Idol, Nick Whitehouse taking it on tour with country singer-songswriter, Brett Aldredge’s and, illustrating its adaptability, making its debut opera appearance at the UK’s Garsington Opera Festival.

The FX-family has bedded in quickly with MagicBlade-FX forming the major visual focus in Zach Sternberg’s mutable lighting design for indie band, Sylvan Esso and Dan Hadley employing an array of MagicPanel-FX units for rock royalty, Foo Fighters, on their Concrete and Gold tour.

Showing the enduring appeal and versatility of our old favourites, MagicBlade-R fixtures partied the night away at Maroon 5’s NYE party in Brian Jenkins’ expansive design, MagicPanel-R units were skilfully used by Yves Aucoin to frame Celine Dion’s performance on her 25-date LIVE tour, MagicPanel-602 are currently lighting the ‘Queen of Country Pop’, Shania Twain’s world tour in Rob Sinclair’s mammoth design, while Leroy Bennett gets creative with MagicDot-XT for Lenny Kravitz.

Finally, it’s been a busy year for our DreamPanel-Twin which appeared in two designs of stunning structural impact: firstly with Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann’s multi-layered design for Korn’s Serenity of Summer tour, which also incorporated NandoBeam-S9 and NandoBeam-S3, MagicBlade-FX and MagicRing-R9 fixtures, and again in a radical design by Tyler Santangelo who used them to build a ‘DreamWall’ for American rap and hip hop artist, Vince Staples, which melted away into a completely transformed sylvan scene for Tyler, the Creator, that incorporated the full range of NandoBeam fixtures.

What a way to round up a year! We hope you enjoy the read and can’t wait to do it all again in 2019!

Download a pdf version here.

Ayrton Cobras let loose on Brussels Flower Carpet

The Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium, a UNESCO world heritage site, hosted the biennial Flower Carpet for the 24th time from 13-18 August 2026. Over 700,000 brightly coloured flowers were laid out in a pattern inspired by the famous artwork by Katsushika Kokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, which was reimagined by Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama to mark the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Belgium.

Ayrton Veloce Profiles illuminate Gaurav Gupta’s Haute Couture Collection

Gaurav Gupta’s Haute Couture Collection was showcased in July 2026 at the Jio World Pavilion 3 in Mumbai. The avant-garde Indian couturier’s work has featured internationally, including at Paris Haute Couture Week, and is noted for its defined sculptural style. The responsibility for delivering a lighting design to match the drama and tone of the couturier’s Collection fell to lighting designer Harshvardhan Pathak, who’s remit was shaped to fit the fashion show’s exquisite concept of Lunar & Solar.

Christopher Pratt brings in the shutters on Dear Evan Hansen with Ayrton Stradale at The King’s Theatre, Portsmouth

Receiving excellent reviews for its outstanding performances and production values, the recent amateur production of Dear Evan Hansen performed by CCADS Theatre in The King’s Theatre, Portsmouth saw some highly original uses of Ayrton Stradale fixtures in an imaginative design by lighting designer Christopher Pratt.

Ayrton, zactrack, Green Hippo and MA Lighting Partner on Lionel Richie’s “Sing A Song All Night Long” Summer Tour

A wide array of Ayrton fixtures, a zactrack automated follow system, Green Hippo media servers and grandMA3 consoles hit the road with Lionel Richie this summer when he co-headlined the “Sing A Song All Night Long Tour” across North America with legendary band Earth, Wind & Fire, bringing both artists’ classic catalogues to arenas and major venues. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of all of the aforementioned brands in North America.

Singapore celebrates its National Day Parade 2026 with Ayrton EagleStrike

Singapore celebrated the 61st anniversary of its independence in spectacular style on 9 August with its National Day Parade (NDP 2026) at the National Stadium, returning to its traditional site for the first time in ten years. Displays, fireworks and patriotic festivities brought 42,000 Singaporeans together in an evening of joyous celebration, with a record number of civilian participants – over 1200 – taking centre stage.