Glastonbury Festival was “the best yet,” according to organiser Emily Eavis, with a star studded procession of artists from Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters to The Sleaford Mods, The XX and Katy Perry appearing on its stages. These superstars weren’t the only crowd pleasers at the five day event, also attracting a lot of attention was the 20 metre high multi-coloured ribbon tower that people could climb to get a panoramic view of the festival grounds. The Ribbon Tower along with The park area of site was celebrating its 10th anniversary. 

To mark such an occasion an additional areal light show was to be designed for the tower.  The display was to fit harmoniously with the tower up-lights, and add drama and presence to structure. 

To ensure the tower could be seen from miles around, Simon Marcus MD Enlightened, utilised Chauvet Maverick Hybrid MK1 fixtures where were installed in custom fabricated weatherproof domes by the Enlightened team at the base of the Ribbon Tower.

The MK1s were positioned in a line behind the tower, with the intense 440W beam shooting from behind into the night’s sky. Lighting designer and programmer David Howard, Student of the University of South Wales and placement student at Enlightened, used the fixtures in both beam and spot modes to achieve a myriad of effects with the tower. 

‘The power and versatility of the Mavericks allowed the tower to be a focal point of the entire site, switching seamlessly between beam looks and animated effects in the air was achievable with ease’ says David. 

Situated near areas like Arcadia, who themselves were producing awesome yet intense in air effects, The Ribbon Tower needed to have a present yet welcoming feel which reflected the vibe of The Park, while competing for in-air visual attention. 

‘The mavericks allowed bold and dramatic looks to be achieved in the sky, which were in keeping with the feel of the surrounding installations,’ said David

In addition to powerful white beams, David utilised the Maverick’s saturated CMY colour system and variable zoom range to create interesting and eye catching looks. 

‘The feature set of the MK1s meant that no look had to be repeated in the entirety of the one hour timecoded display’ continued David.

During the five-day festival, the fixtures were put through their paces night after night on a relentless routine of stunningly vivid aerial effects. As a result, reliability and durability were of upmost importance in specifying the Maverick fixtures.