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The Edinburgh Festival is the most famous arts festival in the world and Black Light has been working behind the scenes for years to help some of the city’s most famous venues put on their shows. The sheer amount of equipment that must be provided proves that Black Light have what it takes to meet any logistical challenge. The fact that we are asked back year after year, proves that we have the creative expertise to meet any challenge that the Festival can throw at us.

For 2009’s Festival we supplied all the Pleasance venues with all their lighting and staging. That’s no small boast as there were 24 different performance spaces hosting shows under the Pleasance name. These spaces ranged in size from the 730-seat Pleasance Grand to the Cellar and Joker Dome. We also provided all of C Venues with their staging. With over 170 shows from 150 companies, these venues hosted the largest programme of theatre on the Fringe.

We also supplied equipment for two Dancebase venues at Dancebase and the Drill Hall. The Drill Hall was a double challenge as we had to turn a space that wasn’t normally a performance venue into a theatre, the shows also had aerial elements which brought a whole new dimension to our work.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

To complete the 2009 Festival challenge, we provided lights for Beijing Film Academy’s multimedia performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was hosted by the University of Edinburgh’s Confucius Institute for Scotland at the McEwan Hall. lt was a mix of music, dance and martial arts and had been put together by some of the team who worked on the Beijing Olympics – so we had a tough act to follow!

The overall challenge of working on the Festival is the sheer quantity of the equipment and services we have to supply in such a short space of time. For example, in 2009 we needed 202 Acclaim Fresnels, in excess of 1000 Ways of Dimming, 515 Source 4 Profiles, over 7km of Socapex Multicore Cable and 40+ Lighting Desks. We met much of this demand from our own resources and, thanks to our excellent connections in the industry, were able to sub-contract additional equipment from England.

All the venues approached us as they know they can rely on us. For example, we have a 2-year partnership with the Pleasance. Not only can we get the necessary gear, but we also rig venues for some of our clients. We also offer the expertise and peace of mind that is vital for such high-profile shows: For the Pleasance we supplied a technician 24/7 for Onsite Support, and we also provide all our Festival clients with a 24-hr emergency call out service.

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