Your guide to lighting hire

Whilst you may not have put lighting at the top of your list in terms of event planning priorities, it is one of the biggest considerations when setting the ambience and mood for your entire event theme. Here are our top tips,

Design a plan specifically for lighting

Consider the key areas you’ll need lighting, and which sections of your venue are most important to be well lit and/or dim to create ambience. The easiest way to do this is to do a site visit and physically identify the areas in person. Your venue may already have some lighting also provided so you’ll want to ensure that this doesn’t clash with what you had in mind. You could even mark this up in your floor plan.

Try and test different light settings

It may sound like nit picking, but the lumens (usually correlated to watts) of a lightbulb can vary greatly and completely change the ambience of your event setting. If you’re looking to create a warm atmosphere in the evening, usually it’s more effective to have numerous low watt light bulbs. If your event is more formal or professional, 60+ watts is more common. The most popular watt lightbulb usages for events are (in order of low to high brightness),

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Next time you’re out at a venue, dinner or conference, observe the lighting being used. You’ll be surprised at how much this finer detail can completely transform the atmosphere of a function.

Consider ‘party’ lights if you have a dancefloor

If your dance floor having energy is important to you, you’ll want to strongly consider UV, laser or strobe lights. Obviously they don’t have to be lit up all evening, but it helps create a central area of attention for when the formalities have concluded and it’s time to party! You can view our full range of lights at Event Hire Sydney here.

Stage lighting

For stage lighting, you’ll need a spotlight (colour or warm white) to give focus to the presentation or speaker. You should also be mindful of the colour surrounding the event stage and room, and opt for something darker, more neutral and usually mono-coloured. If you’re planning a conference event where attendees are listening to keynote speakers, it’s important to ensure that the lighting is still bright enough for attendees to take notes (if they choose). The term ‘wash lighting’ is often used on a stage to light up the space. If you have an exhibition space, ‘wash lighting’ is also referred to as an area that you want to highlight. Wash lighting can be in white or selected colours.

Lighting should be thought of as part of the decor

In the same fashion that you set a table, have cushion colours on chairs or add a throw to an ottoman, lighting can also be a decorative and stylish feature. Whether it’s stringing warm fairy lights like a canopy across the room, adjusting the height of hanging pendants or adding a funky shade or lantern to a bulb – there’s a lot of ways to get creative with lighting! So don’t hesitate to start the Pinterest board for inspiration. You can view ours here.