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“Versatile, sexy, bold, and effective” are the words BML-Blackbird’s Lighting Designer & Director Chris Ragan uses to describe his work at Lockn’ Festival (2018). To best demonstrate the emotions those powerful words evoke through color, Ragan used a combination of cyan, purple, and amber lighting for the festival this year.
Chris Ragan specked the rigs himself to include 34 Robe BMLF Spots, 38 Robe Spiiders, 24 Robe Mega Pointes, 14 Robe Color Strobes, 10 Mac Vipers, 26 Chauvet Rogue FxB, and 36 LED par – all provided by BML-Blackbird.
“I thought the Robe Color Strobes were a powerful fixture. It was my first time using them and I was pretty impressed! And, of course the Mega Pointes are great for the amazing prism features!” Ragan also added “the BMFLS are great for powerful audience sweeps as they have the ability to cover a large concert field. I rely on the Mega Pointes to frame the stage along with their prisms while the Spiiders and color strobes are used for wash and pixel tricks.”
This year, Ragan set out to use similar fixtures that he uses on the famed Dead & Company tour but with a branded festival look. The overhead trusses were Hard Edge infinity looking trusses with LED pars as toners that are a play on the Lockn’ logo.
Chris Ragan has been the Lighting Designer for the Lockn’ Festival for the past 6 years and shared that this year Robe sponsored a very chill space that they shared with Meyer Sound called the Roadie Lounge. “It was a great spot for traveling crews to connect and cool off. I hope Robe is back next year!”
Chris Ragan got his start back in college at Syracuse University in the 90’s where he began experimenting with making his own light boxes. In a short time, Ragan went from designing backdrops and concert T-shirts between classes to flipping lighting switches for the band moe. Today, Chris Ragan is considered a luminary in the Lighting Design industry with a long list of touring credits including moe., Secret Machines, Gov’t Mule, The Strokes, Common, and many others as well as several festivals including Lockn’, EZoo, Firefly, Electric Daisy Carnival NYC, and Mountain Jam. Ragan is a Lighting Designer and Account Executive at BML-Blackbird while also operating his own Raygun Designs (@ragun_designs).
Photo credit: Scarlett Bucket
