The Mothership UFO after dark with a crowd gathered beneath it, white spokes fanning across its amber underside and the three chrome legs washed in pink and blue

Electric Picnic Festival

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Transmission at Electric Picnic Festival

ENTTEC provided dynamic lighting solutions for the Transmission area at the Electric Picnic Festival in Ireland. The project featured a central UFO structure, designed by artist Ali Kemal Ali, adorned with approximately 5,500 LED pixels controlled by ENTTEC’s Pixelator Minis and PLink injectors. This setup created vibrant light shows, enhancing the festival’s intergalactic theme and providing an immersive experience for visitors.

The Electric Picnic Festival is an annual arts and music festival, which has run every year since 2004. The festival pulls in big name artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Mumford & Sons, The Killers, Florence + the Machine, and Arctic Monkeys, with 50,000 people descending on the Stradbally site in County Laois, Ireland. ‘Transmission’ is an area within the festival, which has been a regular feature of the festival for the past 3 years.

It’s an intergalactic experience where you can party with your extra-terrestrial friends. The space features brightly lit installations, DJs (playing on the brilliantly named ‘The Vinyl Frontier’ stage) and a dance floor. The ‘Mothership’ is a towering UFO type structure, central to the Transmission experience and was designed by Ali Kemal Ali, an Irish artist. The 2018 festival was the 3rd year that the structure has landed at the event, evolving each year into something bigger and better. The underside of the structure was covered with approx. 5,500 LED pixels, which were controlled by the Pixelator Mini’s and the Plink injectors. The ship put on a dazzling light show, setting the scene for an epic weekend at the electric picnic festival. We’re excited to see what 2019 will bring….

The sculpture from the front at night, the saucer rim washing from green through red with pixel lines sweeping in under the hull

Solution

Controls

Powered by 2 x Pixelator Minis, 13 x PLink Injectors

Lights

Lit up by 5,500 LED Pixels

Hand-drawn diagram of the rig, a Pixelator Mini feeding three PLink injectors that drive the UFO sculpture and its 5,500 LED pixels

The ENTTEC equipment was very easy to use and very powerful. I especially liked the screw terminals on the Plinks, these made it very easy for me to test the strips once installed.

Luke MaguireTransmission Space Lighting Designer

Result

  • Overhead view of the control gear laid out on plywood, labelled power supplies and injectors with cable runs taped down between them
  • Dancers under the saucer at night, red and green pixel lines radiating overhead from its centre
  • A DJ leaning over the decks in green haze, a record spinning in the foreground and the lit UFO behind the crowd
  • Looking up into the underside of the ship, blue spokes running out from the middle above speaker stacks and a packed dance floor
  • Night view of the UFO on its fenced patch of grass, uplit trees behind it and the three legs throwing light down onto the ground

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