GRANT COUNTY, WA – It’s easy to see why festival fans love The Gorge. Voted nine times as Pollstar’s “Best Outdoor Music Venue,” the universally acclaimed site 150-miles east of Seattle offers breathtaking views of the Columbia River Canyon – and, since it’s situated in the middle of a prehistoric rock formation, it also serves as a natural acoustic bowl.
James McKenna appreciates all the virtues of The Gorge, but as a lighting designer, he knows that the iconic site also possesses some formidable challenges. “The Gorge is one of the most beautiful venues to visit -- and one of the most punishing to work at,” he said. “You have to contend with the heat, dust, and the aggravation that comes with working there.
It’s also far enough from civilization that if you forget to bring something, your options are limited. The venue has done a lot of work over the past couple of years to greatly improve the infrastructure out there. At the end of the day though, when you see how spectacular shows look there, it’s always well worth the effort.”
This kind of effort put forth by McKenna and his team at R90 Lighting paid off beautifully for fans June 25th at the 2026 edition of Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland at The Gorge. Brought on by Insomniac to set up two stages, they created a well-oiled machine that supported a variety of acts over the three-day festival.
For his part, McKenna did double-duty at the event. Not only did he supervise the set-up of two stages, but he was also asked by Erik Mahowald of Bending Lite Productions to run the lights on the bassrush-powered Mad Hatter’s Castle Stage. Helping him keep up with every intense dubstep, trap, and bass as he busked his way through the festival was a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console supplied by R90 Lighting. “I like my gigs like I like my chicken nuggets: double-dipped,” he quipped.
Lighting all but three of the acts on the stage during the festival, McKenna delighted in mashing buttons aggressively. “Mad Hatter’s Castle is a bass music stage – and bass music is fairly chaotic,” he said. “What I enjoy most about running lights to that style of music is that I get to just go for it with big in your face looks that go in unpredictable directions. The lighting can be as punishing as the sounds emitting from the PA. There is a certain amount of freedom in that you get to use every gimmick that your rig is capable of when busking that kind of show.
“The only limitations that you have are your imagination and how much programming time is available,” continued McKenna. “This allows you to blend everything you have in the desk to match the highs and lows on whichever path the music is taking. Since we’re talking about bass music, there are a lot of strobes and shutters. Want to let out some aggression in a healthy way? Busk!”
McKenna leans on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M when expressing himself with busking. “The ease of programming with the MagicQ software is made for someone like me,” he said. “I am one of those masochists who would rather build a fresh show every time than retool an old one to fit a new rig. Each show gets programmed for the rig in front of me. Adapting a previous show’s programming to a completely different setup is sometimes messy (or boring) when you want to busk.”
The 12-key Executor was also helpful to McKenna at Beyond Wonderland. “It’s just a nice area to put big reusable looks in an easily accessible space,” he said. “It is where I put my get-out-of-jail-free looks, so if I’m caught off guard, I always have those keys on standby.
“Lighting fixtures are using more and more parameters today,” continued McKenna. “I won’t go into detail, but just say that the MQ500M did not require additional network processing to handle every fixture on this rig in their full channel modes. That wasn’t the experience we had with the consoles that the visiting LDs brought to the festival.”
A versatile console wasn’t the only thing helping McKenna at Beyond Wonderland. Also coming in for praise was Maryalice Weed, lighting lead from R90; Eugene Cognomen and Dwight Upton-Francis, lighting techs from R90; and the entire R90 warehouse crew back in Seattle.
“Everything really came together for us at this festival,” said McKenna… and that brought out the best in one of the USA’s most legendary outdoor music venues.
About ChamSys
Based in the UK, ChamSys Ltd. was founded in 2003 by a group of designers and product developers seeking to create a lighting console that offered greater flexibility. The company’s MagicQ range has set an industry standard used in some of the most prominent concert, theatre, broadcast and club applications around the world. ChamSys was acquired in 2017 by Chauvet & Sons LLC, a leading global provider of professional luminaires, trusses, controllers and related equipment headquartered in the USA. For more information, visit www.chamsysusa.com
Photo Credit: Maryalice Weed
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