WorldStage Lighting Supports Pride 2020 Rainbow Illuminations in New York City

Stonewall Inn, Lincoln Center and Julliard School celebrate the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ movement with eye-catching displays.

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WorldStage Lighting Supports Pride 2020 Rainbow Illuminations in New York City

The birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ movement and the epicenter of Pride month for the past 50 years, New York City marked this year’s civic expressions with rainbow illuminations near the Stonewall Inn, at Lincoln Center and at the Juilliard School.

WorldStage supported MediaGenics, which produced the rainbow light tribute near the Stonewall Inn, the site of the riot that launched the LGBTQ+ movement five decades ago. Snack brand Kind partnered with experiential marketing agency Bankrobber Projects on the West Village installation on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street near the Stonewall Inn.

WorldStage supported Bankrobber, which produced the rainbow light tribute near the Stonewall Inn, the site of the riot that launched the LGBTQ+ movement five decades ago.

Snack brand Kind partnered with experiential marketing agency Bankrobber Projects on the West Village installation on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street near the Stonewall Inn.

“Kind was looking to do a huge rainbow in the sky,” said WorldStage account executive Ben DeFusco in the World Stage announcement.

“They wanted something similar to the 9/11 illumination, but 9/11’s white light in the sky is easier to do than colors, which dissipate much faster. You have to throw a lot of light at colors,” he said.

Pride 2020

Inside the Pride 2020 Illuminations

WorldStage worked with lighting designer Fred Bock from “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” to determine the number of lights required to achieve a throw which could be visible across Manhattan as well as from Brooklyn and New Jersey.

They did five tests outside the WorldStage warehouse in Secaucus, N.J., using a 48-foot flatbed trailer as the platform for the lighting rig and additional truss. A drone measured the throw at 700 feet and provided views of the illumination from different angles.

Bock and WorldStage selected 160 Claypaky Mythos 2 spot and beam lights, which DeFusco says “checked all the boxes” required to achieve the rainbow in the sky. They were powered by a generator van from TAJ Event and Power.

“We initially thought we’d use just half as many lights, then we doubled the quantity a few days before the event,” said DeFusco in the announcement. “A lot was left up to the elements, and we got lucky. There were some clouds in the sky Saturday night (June 27) so the lights have something to cling to.

The setup was seamless – our crew arrived about 6 p.m. and the truck about 7, and we were up and running by 9 p.m.,” he said.

The Pride 2020 lights remained lit until 5 a.m. the next morning.

Lincoln Center partnered with WorldStage on the Josie Robertson Plaza illumination – the first time that Lincoln Center has added accent lighting to its facades – and on the rainbow flag projected onto the façade of the Juilliard performing arts conservatory.

“We were extremely proud to stand with Lincoln Center on this fantastic project and hope that it becomes an anticipated annual show of support for the LGBTQ+ community,” said WorldStage VP and director of lighting Terry Jackson.

The rainbow-colored plaza illumination lit up the buildings housing the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic, all of which have been dark since programming was canceled due to the coronavirus.

WorldStage teamed with Lincoln Center lighting designer Andrew Grant on the project using 50-plus Astera AX5 wireless LED PARs.

For the Juilliard School, WorldStage and Grant projected a large rainbow flag onto the building’s façade, uniting the conservatory and the adjacent Lincoln Center in their support of Pride 2020.

Fourteen ETC Source Four Lustr 2 LED fixtures created the pride flag from a mounted rig constructed across the street on a challenging slanted patch of lawn.

Pride 2020

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