PILTON, UK --  “Glastonbury can be brutal. Glastonbury can be magical." So said Gibson guitar maestro Noel Gallagher, who performed there multiple times over the past three decades. The 2025 edition of the iconic festival was (as usual) a bit of both but mostly leaning to the magical!

An impressive collection of ChamSys consoles was there, rugged and reliable enough to handle all the demands (brutal or not) made by a five-day festival spread across 900 acres, yet powerful, flexible and intuitive enough to help inspired LDs conjure up some sublime moments.

At the head of the pack was the MagicQ MQ500M+ Stadium Console, flagship of the ChamSys line that directly supports 400 universes without external processors and offers fully motorized faders and encoders with 42 playbacks.  Its potent features were put to excellent use at the Woodsies Stage where Ed Warren powered shows by Four Tet and Lola Young with consoles supplied by LCR.  Joe Beardsmore brought one of his own MagicQ MQ500M+ Stadium consoles to cast an immersive mood for Tom Odell at the stage provided by Siyan and a floor package from Coloursound Experiment.

Over at the Circus Big Top, James Loudon made some high-flying performances even more spectacular with a dynamic lighting design that he ran on an MQ500M+ (along with a GeNetix GN5) from Fineline. Silver Hayes performances went smoothly at Lonely Hearts thanks to a production supplied and put together by SR Productions who provided an MQ500M+ for LD Freddy Venediger.  Silver Hayes also shined with help from the MQ500M+ (along with GeNetix GN10 and GN4IP) at The Levels Stage and a design by James Newmarch of Refrakt Labs.

Meanwhile at the always-fun Flying Bus Stage, the show clicked to perfection, powered by an MQ500M along with GeNetix GN10 from GLX. Lighting for Portishead legend Beth Gibbons’ performance at The Park Stage was smooth as silk, courtesy of Dave Ross and his MQ500M from SWG. 

Also at the Park Stage, Steve Mccracken brought his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium console and LD Brian Kelly kept things perking for the Caribou set.  David Howard cast an evocative mood over the Park Stage for Gary Numan’s show with a MagicQ MQ250M. Howard also relied on the versatile MQ250M to conjure up looks for a variety of shows, including the popular secret set by Sam Ryder. Since three’s a charm, Howard used the MQ250M again at the Fineline supplied Acoustic Stage for Dhani Harrison.

Will Thomas brought his MagicQ MQ250M (and new Compact Wing) to run his stellar lightshow with a house rig supplied by NEG Earth that transformed the circus opening at the Pyramid arena.  At the Glade stage, Tom White had his lighting move to the rhythm of dance music by tapping into the performance features of an MQ250M supplied by Coloursound.  Over at Glasto Latino the tempo was more Latin style, but the lighting was just as in step, the result of the MQ250M, along with the work of Mass Affect Lighting and Enlightened.  At The Hive Stage, the MQ250M moved lighting to the beat of emerging talent thanks to Luke Adams Lighting.

Carhenge is always fun for LDs and fans alike. This year, the good times rolled smoothly thanks to the ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 Compact Console on hand, which was put to good use by the likes of Ed Warren and Will Thomas.

The powerful Compact consoles also yielded big results at Glebeland (from Enlightened), Left Field (SWG), and The Blind Tiger (GLX), as well as Shangri-La - Lore (Wolf Events). Shangri-La - Azaadi also was enhanced by ChamSys, as a MagicQ MQ50 Compact Console did the trick.

True,  the demands made at all these stages were real (but hardly brutal), the resultant magic created with reliable, feature-rich ChamSys consoles was something special indeed.