ADELE IN MUNICH

Lighting for Adele’s record-breaking Adele in Munich residency, staged in a purpose-built outdoor stadium designed by production designer Florian Wieder at the Munich Messe, was designed by Cory FitzGerald from US-based creative design studio Silent House. Cory started working for Adele in 2022 during her upgraded Las Vegas residency, and also designed lighting for her BST Hyde Park, London shows in the same year.

The 10 blockbusting shows took place over five weekends during the month of August 2024, and were production directed by Paul English. The performances were enjoyed by 730,000 people, also breaking the record for the highest attendance of any ‘concert residency’ outside Las Vegas! The spectacular production was Adele’s second concert residency only, and marked her first non-UK European concert since 2016.

The overall scenography design concept was delivered by Stufish Entertainment Architects, featuring an impressive 220-metre-wide by 19-metre-high curved LED screen – 4,000 square metres of light source mimicking an unfurling film scroll in shape, and a Guinness Book of World Records holder! A 200-metre semi-circular stage was in front of the main video screen and a 93-metre-long curved runway connected each side of this to a B stage in the centre of the auditorium, allowing Adele to get close to her fans.

The creative team behind Adele in Munich spent 12 months working on the various aspects of this massive undertaking, with everything designed to bring the artist as close as possible to as many as possible of her fans in the audience.  

The giant seamless curved screen idea was already in place, so this was a major starting point for lighting. Being a completely bespoke build, Cory and his team were able to add some towers and other higher lighting positions, plus quantities of floor lighting during the early phases of the ideation process following detailed negotiations with other tech departments like audio.

Th lighting design featured over 250 Robe FORTE moving lights, split into 223 iFORTE LTXs used for multiple key lighting positions for the artist and 36 iFORTES dedicated to lighting the band.

Thirteen Robe iBOLTS were also part of the unique lighting aesthetic developed by Cory and the creative team, led by show director Kim Gavin, to embrace all the challenges and demands of this epic proportioned show by the global superstar. All lighting equipment was supplied by UK-based Neg Earth Lights and the screen was constructed by Solotech.

The screen and the vast overall dimensions of the performance space meant Cory needed bright and powerful fixtures, so Robe’s iFORTE LTX was already in his head, and he soon decided to use these fixtures for key lighting Adele as she moved around the space.

 Lighting was vital “to recreate some of the theatrical style and ambience of Las Vegas in this completely new and different context,” he elucidated, seeking to combine the drama of beautiful, bespoke big operatic looks with the video elements – both IMAG and playback content – in a poetic harmony.

Lighting the show for daylight, dusk and darkness was another challenge, as being mid-summer, all the performances had to be aligned with that natural transition.

Cory has used Robe FORTES before several times, and apart from needing the brightness, IP rated fixtures were a must for the exposed lighting positions, so the iFORTE LTX wash beam was a great choice for these, including a row of deck-based luminaires along the downstage edge of the stage. The iFORTE was also picked for its quality of light.

112 of the iFORTES used for key lighting were positioned on 11 FOH towers in batches of eight or 12 fixtures per tower, which varied in throw distance (to the stage) from between 50 and 400 feet (approx. 130 metres) depending on the stage positions they were targeting.

25 of these iFORTE LTXs were running on a tag-and-anchor tracking system with another two running on two Robe FPV RoboSpot systems for full flexibility, with up to 18 iFORTE LTXs at a time deployed to combat direct sunlight during parts of some performances.

iFORTE LTX was Cory’s first choice of moving light for key lighting, and he praises the Neg Earth team for sourcing this many during an exceptionally busy European summer season, adding that in an ideal world he “initially would have liked a few more,” but the results using these – combined with around 2000 other lights on the rig – enabled the creation of a perfect visual collage.

Cory first used iFORTE LTXs as follow spots on Justin Timberlake’s ‘Forget Tomorrow’ world tour, and it’s been his go-to for this task since then. He likes the huge lens, the intensity and impact as well as the “excellent” CT white range. “Obviously the reliability is a must, and the IP rating is also great, making them ideal for both indoor and outdoor stadiums and scenarios.”

The 13 iBOLTS were a late addition to the lighting plot, but Cory was super-excited to be using this new 500W white phosphor laser source from Robe. Five iBOLTS were rigged on the two ‘scroll towers’ on either end of the screen, with three upstage centre, used for truly spectacular back light effects.

Cory loved them. “They are super-bright, very controllable, have lots of options, great looking gobo effects and really punch through everything,” he stated. They produced cool back lighting plus stylish back-of-camera looks for the live mix cut by the show’s creative director Matt Askem, as well as complemented the overall impressive architectural installation with “big, bold and purposeful looks.”

125 Ayrton Cobra and 85 Ayrton Domino Profile IP65-rated fixtures were also key features in the design. The Domino Profile fixtures were located in the overhead stage rig and upstage floor areas from where FitzGerald used them for everything from stage light and audience light to aerial effects. “But it was the ground row of Dominos that ended up being the work horse of the stage floor system, creating a horizon of lights behind the band and Adele, and big beam and break up effects in the camera backgrounds,” he says. “The Dominos are great big-lens punchy fixtures which not only performed fantastically but looked great too.”

The Cobra laser-sourced fixtures were arrayed along the central and side thrusts and the B-stage which also saw a lot of action, from where FitzGerald used them as beam lights for graphic patterns in the night sky, as well as for textures to create unique breakup looks. “One number, ‘Hold On’, was particularly impressive in that it featured a unique use of Cobra beams and searchlights through the crowd that then became a massive geometric array into the sky,” explains FitzGerald. “It was really great to finally get to utilise all that punch and versatility of the Cobra!”

Having used Ayrton fixtures before, FitzGerald and his team saw the potential of Domino Profile and Cobra for such a project of this size and prestige: “We had used the Domino in Adele’s Vegas residency and decided to keep them for Munich because of their versatility,” he explains. “We’d tried Cobra before, but never quite to the extent we used it on this show. I’m really impressed with the brightness and the reliability of both of them.”

With most of the massive performance area in the open-air during summer in Germany, the IP65 rating of the fixtures was essential. “The entire rig was exposed to the elements all day and night in this production, and we’d seen a LOT of rain since day one of load in. The fixtures held up great in the weather and the beams looked amazing in a drizzle!”

The creative challenges for lighting this event abounded. Apart from breaking new and experimental ground on multiple levels, the sheer scale of the stage design and scenography and the integration of all the technical elements to deliver this truly world- class show to so many people was mind-boggling!

“To showcase some incredibly intimate and personal moments highly effectively in that expansive space was a test for all involved – including the artist – but creative mastery, experience, everyone’s understanding of the theatricality and essence of performance, and of course, some truly outstanding teamwork and a splattering of show magic all combined to make it a record-breaker not only in size but also in collective achievement,” he reflected.

His lighting director for Munich was Nick van Nostrand, who also ran lighting for the last Las Vegas residency together with programmer Davy Martinez. “We had all learned a lot from Las Vegas in terms of how to use scale to our advantage,” concluded Cory, who also shouted out Keith Johnson, crew chief, and Joao Magalhaes, systems engineer, from Neg Earth Lights for their “amazing work making it happen”.

Adele in Munich was production directed by Paul English. The structures were built by STAGECO (black steel) and TAIT (automation and staging), the video content was produced by Treatment Studio, overseen by Matt Askem; Clair Global supplied audio, communications, radios and data services, sitewide production IT and Wi-Fi infrastructure. Creative production of the extensive ‘Adele World’ public area that was part of the overall 75,000 square metre stadium site was delivered by LarMac LIVE.

“I want to say a huge thanks to the Neg Earth crew who worked tirelessly for weeks to get this show up and working,” says FitzGerald, “and also to programmer Davey Martinez, and lighting director Nick Van Nostrand, as well as System Tech JJ Contini who got it all working and looking amazing!”