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 Kteam 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 Kteam, (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.
For more information, visit chauvetprofessional.com.
