Nashville-based lighting designer Chris Lisle put Elation lighting to work across three different summer projects, using the fixtures to create distinctive visual environments at Perry’s Stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago, the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine, California, and Nashville’s massive July 4 celebration.
A veteran of the lighting industry, Lisle has increasingly focused on festival work, particularly through C3 Presents, where he moves between large-scale house rigs and more creatively driven projects. His task is to design a rig that works for multiple artists, multiple lighting designers, and sometimes multiple music styles. And while many festival stages require relatively standard rigs that can accommodate a succession of visiting artists’ lighting designers, certain projects allow him to design something more custom.
Creative Freedom at Lollapalooza Perry’s Stage
Lisle’s common design thread is grounded in creating lighting systems that deliver a strong visual identity while remaining flexible enough to adapt to the needs of the project. A great example is at this year’s Lollapalooza, which took place July 30–August 2 in Chicago's Grant Park, where he designed the rig for Perry’s Stage, the festival’s large electronic and dance music stage. Unlike the festival's two main stages, which need to remain relatively generic to accommodate numerous headlining artists and their production teams, Perry’s gave Lisle considerably more creative freedom.
“When I have the opportunity to do something custom and fun, I can start thinking about the architecture of the rig, how I can fill the space, and how I can create something that gives the artists and their lighting designers a lot to work with. For me, Perry’s is one of my favorite stages to do every year,” he says. “It’s one of those places where I really get to have a budget to do fun shapes with truss and architecture and be creative. I can fill up that space without having to accommodate headliners and their supplemental production.”
Podzilla
One defining element of the 2026 design was an overhead structure Lisle dubbed “Podzilla”—a large central pod incorporating smaller mini-pods. He positioned 12 Elation Proteus Brutus fixtures at the points of the structure, giving the stage a powerful aerial element, while also giving visiting lighting designers opportunities to interpret the fixtures in their own ways.
“I wanted something up there that would have this big accent and some real horsepower when needed,” Lisle said of the 75,000-lumen Brutus, an LED wash FX fixture that he has often used on other projects. “With these festival rigs, you don't always have the opportunity for that kind of fixture. A lot of them are just a spot, a wash, a strobe, a blinder and done. But anytime I can really do something creative, I like to put some big aerial stuff out there, and that's what that Brutus is for.”
The Proteus Brutus fixtures, which 4Wall supplied, ultimately became one of the more versatile elements of the Perry’s Stage rig. Some visiting lighting designers used them for punchy beam looks, while others positioned their programming around the DJ and used the fixtures as part of the stage’s key lighting.
“That’s the unique thing about being in my role,” says Lisle. “I can design the rig and have a vision for how I would program it and execute it during a show, but at the end of the day you have 20 different lighting designers coming into that rig. They each put their own creative spin on it, and the Brutus gave them another tool to work with.”
An Architectural Rig for Daisy Chain Fields
Lisle brought the same design philosophy to the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival, founded by Olivia Rodrigo and produced by C3 Presents at Great Park in Irvine on August 29. The one-day festival featured two stages and a lineup of women-led artists, including Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks, and surprise guest Alanis Morissette, with net proceeds benefiting organizations supporting women and girls.
For the festival's main stage, Lisle designed a highly customized lighting rig around an equally distinctive scenic environment. The stage was wrapped in pink mesh fabric, with a series of button-like elements across the fascia. The opening in the mesh created a large arch, which Lisle echoed through the lighting architecture.
“The scenic really defines that stage,” he says. “There were these buttons along the fascia, and mesh fabric covered the downstage front and upstage, creating this defining arch. That gave us some really fun architecture to play with and light around.”
Lisle created downstage and upstage trusses connected by a series of finger trusses, creating a large-scale arch of lighting fixtures. The rig incorporated 56 Elation Proteus Hybrid Max fixtures, with additional Proteus Hybrid Max fixtures positioned on vertical ladders on the wings. Forty Rayzor Blade L linear battens ran along 120 feet of the downstage edge.
The Proteus Hybrid Max fixtures also provided the flexibility required for a festival where multiple visiting lighting designers would use the same rig. Six different LDs came through the stage, each interpreting the fixtures differently.
“It can be a wash, a beam or a spot fixture, so that everybody could use it in a different way,” says Lisle. “For me, the fixtures formed this whole arch of light that looked really nice, but the visiting LDs could take that same rig and make it their own.” PRG supplied the lighting for the Daisy Chain Fields festival.
Painting Nashville with Light
Another major summer project brought a different challenge for Lisle. For Nashville's July 4 celebration, he served as production manager and designed the site's lighting, extending the visual impact well beyond a conventional stage environment. The 2026 “Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th” celebration spanned downtown Nashville, with activity centered around Nissan Stadium and the Cumberland River.
Lisle used Elation fixtures throughout the event to illuminate major architectural elements across the city. At Nissan Stadium, 12 Proteus Excalibur fixtures provided aerial beams, while 52 Paladin LED wash fixtures illuminated the underside of the stadium. On the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, 16 Proteus Maximus fixtures created another layer of aerial impact. A further 12 Proteus Maximus fixtures and 48 Paladin fixtures lit buildings along Broadway and added large-scale architectural lighting.
“Here we were really trying to paint architecture with light,” Lisle explains. “Whether it was the underside of the stadium, the pedestrian bridge, or the buildings along Broadway, we were using the light to define those structures and then using the Excaliburs and Maximus to put the big beam looks into the air.”
The effect was particularly important for the event's aerial photography, helping connect the different illuminated locations into a cohesive nighttime image.
“When we did our helicopter and drone shots, we wanted those beam looks coming down Broadway, off the pedestrian bridge and off the stadium,” he says. “You had all these beams around you, so it made the whole city feel like part of the show.” Bandit Lites supplied the Elation lighting for Nashville’s July 4th celebration.
Good Crews, Good Service, Good Gear
The IP rating of the Elation fixtures was an important consideration for all three projects, but the balance between flexibility and visual impact also draws Lisle to Elation's Proteus family and other IP-rated fixtures.
“Every one of these projects gives me a different canvas and the gear gives me a lot of different ways to build a picture with light,” Lisle concludes. “That’s what keeps festival work interesting. I’m very grateful for the vendors and crews on all these projects. Good crews, good service, and good gear make all the difference.”
Photos
Perry’s Stage: Courtesy of 4Wall
Daisy Chain Fields: Courtesy of Daisy Chain Fields
Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th: Chris Lisle
About Elation
At Elation, we collaborate with leading professionals in the lighting industry to help bring extraordinary experiences to life. As a designer and manufacturer of a wide range of high-performance entertainment lighting products, we’re proud to be a trusted partner to top lighting professionals and production/rental houses around the world. Our commitment to quality, innovation, and creative solutions has made us a go-to resource in the industry. We also offer an advanced line of lighting control products through Obsidian Control Systems, and a full range of dependable specialty effects called Magmatic. Elation serves clients worldwide through offices in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Canada, and the Netherlands. We invite you to take a closer look at elationlighting.com
For more information, contact:
Elation US
6122 S. Eastern Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90040
USA
Tel: (866) 245-6726 (toll free)
Tel: 323 582-3322
[email protected]
www.elationlighting.com
Elation EU
Junostraat 2.
6468 EW Kerkrade
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)45 546 85 66
[email protected]
www.elationlighting.eu
Elation Mexico
Av Santa Ana 30,
Parque Industrial Lerma,
Lerma, Mexico 52000
Tel: +011 52 728 282 7070
[email protected]
www.elationlighting.com