There is always an abundance of vibrant music to be savored at the Solidays Festival. The 2025 version of the celebrated event was no exception, as more than 240,000 fans at the Hippodrome de Longchamp were enthralled by artists like Damso, Sean Paul, Fisher, Lamomali, Gims, Kalash, and many others over the course of three spectacular summer days.

But as anyone who has experienced the magic of Solidays knows, this very special non-profit festival is about much more than music. Founded in 1999, to raise awareness and funds for the treatment of AIDS (something it continues to do today), Solidays is a celebration of human dignity, respect and compassion that radiates a sense of warmth and solidarity throughout its over 15-hectare site.

Reflecting this spirit on the festival’s five stages and grounds was an engaging and carefully crafted lighting and production design by Frédéric (Aldo) Fayard and his colleagues at Concept K. Like everyone involved in Solidays, the Concept K team was looking at the “big picture” when creating their impressive design.

“On the stages, we strive to be as efficient as possible,” said Aldo. “We want to come up with a setup that works well for all the bands, but it is also very important to hold down cost in this event, as this is a non-profit festival dedicated to supporting AIDS research."

“Beyond the stage, our design is very different,” continued Aldo. “The festival has an exhibition space, the ‘forest,’ a VIP section, and much more. In each of these spaces, we want to be joyful and bright — creating a unique atmosphere. Since each space is different, we want to have unique looks. However, just as we do with the different stages, we still have to be very efficient to keep costs down.”

Helping Aldo and the Concept K team, (which included Project Manager Stéphane Courtillot, Lighting Designers Theo Broche and Simon Fouillet) achieve this balance was a collection of over 100 CHAUVET Professional fixtures. “The fixtures from Chauvet allowed us to achieve big production looks with a relatively small number of projectors,” said Aldo. “About 70-percent of the bands we host come with their own LDs. This is the reason we have to create a rig that is flexible and universally appealing to designers from different genres. On the other hand, we also need a rig that can work by itself without a floor package. One of our main stage headliners this year did not bring any lights for his concert, just SFX. We were proud that our rig was able to step up and provide all the lighting.”

Anchoring the rig at the “Paris” main stage was a collection of 50 Color Strike M projectors. In addition to being used to create engaging pixel mapped looks, the motorized strobe washes were relied on for audience lighting and blinder effects.

A group of 62 Strike Array 4 high output projectors were spread across four of the festival’s other stages, where they engaged fans and accented key moments in performances by creating blinder effects. “The special signature design at Solidays comes from blinders,” said Aldo, who has been working at the festival for many years. “The Color Strike M and Strike 4s help us create this global Solidays Festival signature. It’s important for us to keep that same spirt across the entire festival.”

That bright, hopeful spirit was indeed shining across the entire festival this year, not just due to nature of Solidays itself, but also from an inspired lighting design by a group of dedicated professionals.