It was a Christmas to remember for the team at On after we were commissioned by Vivid Experience to help stage a series of circus themed Christmas parties at Athena in Leicester.
Athena, which was formerly the Odeon Cinema before being developed into a multi-functional events space in 2006, is transformed into a spectacular Christmas party venue every year, offering an experience like no other.
For the past 9 years Athena have joined forces with Vivid Experience, who create unforgettable Christmas parties at flagship venues across the UK, and this year On Event Production Co. were invited to handle the technical production of the event – the largest of its kind in the City.
The On team supplemented the venue’s existing lighting rig with some of our extensive range of intelligent lighting equipment to create a vibrant, electrifying atmosphere in the venue, which was styled in the theme of a vintage circus, complete with a ringmaster, acrobats and other traditional circus performers.
This included Clay Paky Mythos moving heads, R2 wash lights, LED battens and digital festoon lighting. To complete the theming effect, we added a custom cyclorama cloth to be used as a backdrop to the stage set and a giant pixelmap-able circus sign.
After enjoying a canape reception and three-course dinner, guests were treated to a whole host of thrills and skills – with traditional Circus styled aerial and ground-based entertainment including tight rope walking, trapeze artists, flying hoop, contortion and high level acro-balancing.
As well as supporting the party nights, which took place throughout December, we also worked on a series of special corporate nights with the installation of additional projection screens and bespoke set.
Commenting on working with Vivid Experience on this year’s Christmas events at Athena, Guy Eaton, managing director of On, said:
“This is the first time we’ve worked with both Vivid Experience and the Athena and we’re proud to have played our part in staging such a unique series of events.
“Vivid created a truly amazing party experience for close on 13,000 guests throughout the festive season and we look forward to working with them again in the near future!”
