Frédéric (Aldo) Fayard and his Concept K team were responsible for the lighting design of the Main Stage and Boursobank Stage at the latest edition of the renowned Rock En Seine festival, held at the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud on the banks of the Seine.
For both stages, the team developed a high-impact visual design in which CHAUVET Professional fixtures played a key role in enhancing the stage design and adapting to the requirements of the different performing artists.
The Main Stage, which hosted artists including The Cure, Tyler, The Creator, and Deftones, stood out for its impressive dimensions. Measuring 24 metres wide and 18 metres deep, with almost half of the space dedicated to backstage areas, it featured lighting trusses reaching heights of up to 12 metres.
To further enhance the stage's visual presence, Aldo and his colleagues, led by on-site designer Stephane Courtillot, expanded the stage design with additional video screens and the carefully planned placement of STRIKE 4 and Color STRIKE M fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.
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This solution extended the stage's visual presence by 40 metres, creating a balanced and high-impact composition. Concept K's design successfully integrated the stage and its flanking video screens within a frame of light that enhanced their visual impact, even for spectators positioned 150 metres away.
The role of the Color STRIKE M fixtures was crucial. They surrounded the stage, including the video screens, and highlighted each of the moving lighting trusses, Aldo explained.
Beyond its size and visual balance, the Main Stage needed to offer maximum versatility to meet the requirements of the different artists. To achieve this, a lighting rig comprising 213 fixtures supplied by Dushow was installed, including 18 STRIKE Array 4 and 52 Color STRIKE M fixtures. This configuration provided the bands' lighting designers with the tools needed to tailor each performance to its musical style and artistic identity.
The result was a wide variety of lighting looks. Some performances featured soft washes to create relaxed atmospheres, while others relied on powerful blinder effects to intensify the energy of the show. Monochromatic green looks and compositions featuring moving abstract patterns across the stage and video screens were also used. In this way, the design made it possible to create very different visual environments for each performance.
Asked about this versatility, Aldo highlighted his team's extensive experience at the festival:
We are not magicians, but we know Rock En Seine very well. We have been working at the festival for 21 editions, and we spend a great deal of time studying each artist's technical requirements in advance. Based on this analysis, we select the best lighting equipment and design a configuration that allows us to meet the needs of each band, Aldo explained.
Versatility and efficiency on the Boursobank Stage
Concept K's work also extended to the smaller Boursobank Stage, which presented equally significant technical and operational challenges. Here, the team directly operated the lighting for a greater number of performances, requiring a flexible, efficient system capable of quickly adapting to different setups.
This stage hosted more bands without their own lighting designer, so we had to create something highly efficient in the shortest possible time. In addition, performance slots were shorter, backstage space was more limited, and the crews were smaller. That meant we had to be extremely efficient when it came to installation, changeovers, and dismantling, Aldo noted.
As with the Main Stage, Dushow supplied the lighting equipment for the Boursobank Stage. In this case, the rig included 18 STRIKE Array 4 and 38 Color STRIKE M fixtures from CHAUVET Professional, which played a key role in bringing dynamism and versatility to the different performances.
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The choice of these fixtures reflected the aim of maintaining visual and technical consistency between the two stages, building on a configuration that had already proven effective on the Main Stage. "We found a good solution for the Main Stage and applied the same philosophy to the second stage", Aldo explained.
With this approach, Concept K successfully combined visual impact, creative flexibility, and operational efficiency across two of Rock En Seine's main stages. This philosophy was also extended to two additional smaller stages, with the aim of delivering an immersive audience experience in which lighting complemented and reinforced the musical identity of each performance.
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