July saw the Siyan team handling lighting at the Lovebox Festival, held in Victoria Park in London’s East End.

Over two days, the award winning festival entertained around 50,000 visitors with music and dance in a series of purpose designed and built arenas. Classic names including DJ Annie Nightingale and Duran Duran mixed it with new and upcoming acts, providing a wide variety of musical and dance experience - and a challenge for those planning the sound and lighting of the Lovebox stages.

Lighting designer Brian Leitch and operator Paula Trounce worked closely with the individual acts, ensuring the mood was right for their performances on the main and second stages. Whilst some had their own specific lighting requirements, or their own programmers/operators, others required full lighting support for their set.

As ever, working within the confines of the stages meant physical and weight limitations had an impact on the lighting design, but Siyan was given a flexible brief that allowed them to maximise the space and present some fresh looks for the festival.

And the result? Even by their own high standards, Lovebox 2009 was judged a success - and Siyan were proud to be a key part of the experience.

Lighting a live music show is a very different affair from lighting a televised event, but at the Radio 1 Big Weekend the challenge was to combine the two.

Lily Allen

Billed as the first major music festival of the British season, the Big Weekend took place at Lydiard Park in Swindon on 9 and 10 May with headline acts including Snow Patrol, Prodigy, Basement Jacks and Enemy. And with 40,000people attending the gigs, there would be plenty of views on the atmosphere at the event.

The Siyan team was called in to light three stage areas, with the brief that each had to have sufficient impact for the live audience, while still being acceptable for cameras televising the event.

Alesha Dixon

Designers Bryan Leitch and Steve Finch had to craft the lighting around the bespoke stage design and ensure it suited the variety of acts, each having their own wish list in terms of the look and feel of their set. The result was a careful balancing act, with Jamie Thompson operating main stage and Yenz Nyholm on the second stage.

Helped no doubt by great weather, the Radio 1 Big Weekend 2009 will go down as the best yet. And the lighting? Positive feedback from the bands themselves and the producers at the BBC suggests the Siyan team struck the right balance all weekend.

Ne-Yo