Afterlife 2020 Debuts in Dubai with 100 Claypaky Sharpys Creating a Massive Array of Beams

The Afterlife series of worldwide electronic music festivals arrived in Dubai, UAE for the first time in February at the Hangar 4 industrial warehouse event space. Lighting Designer Pascal Bach of VEM Visionemotion GmbH utilized 100 Claypaky Sharpy fixtures to deliver the evening’s signature Afterlife look within the monumental space. 

Italian DJ duo Tale of Us were the hosts of the show, which featured performances by  Âme, Mind Against, Fideles, Kas:st and Innellea. Pascal Bach created the lighting design and handled the operation of lights and lasers during the show. 

“The main part of the design was a 60-meter truss in the center of the 100-meter hangar. The truss was filled with 50 Sharpys and additional wash lights,” says Bach. “The idea was to create a massive array of light beams that behaved as one single object in an organic way. In general, the Afterlife shows are more relaxed and focused on nice looks and moods instead of crazy and hectic effects. People should feel the music in combination with the visuals and lights without everything making them crazy.” 

The setup contained 50 fixtures on the main center truss and 25 more on each of the two side trusses. Additionally, 30 ClayPaky B-EYE K10s were used to create a side glow and illuminate the hanging Afterlife man, the iconic visual element of the show. 

“Sharpy is a widely used fixture and was the only one available in the quantity I needed for a reasonable price,” Bach notes. “It also had everything I required for the show. It needed to be small, fast and not too heavy. Furthermore it has a nice color selection, thin beams and a frost.” 

The functionality of Sharpy, its stability, and compact size and weight were decisive in the fixtures’ selection, Bach emphasizes. “There aren’t so many fixtures on the market which can produce a super strong, thin beam in a small body like Sharpy does,” he reports. 

Afterlife Dubai 2020 was produced by encodetalent with stage design by Andrea Cuius of Nocte, visuals by Michael Titze, art direction by Roberto Rosolin and technical direction by Christopher Lundie. 

LighTech in Dubai was the equipment supplier for Afterlife.