UTOPIA Dance Party Down Under

South Sydney based BLM Productions based have been a major player in the Australian dance party world for years, providing lighting and sound for about 45 raves a year.

Their most recent large-scale event was Utopia 12 at the Sydney SuperDome. Now in its 6th year, Utopia has grown to become Australia’s biggest all night dance party.

Essential to the lighting of these massive parties are a variety of Martin lighting fixtures. For moving heads, BLM favor the Martin MAC. Utopia Event Designer, Brian Walsh explains. “We used to use Vari*Lites but they became too expensive and with the introduction of the VL6b they lost a lot of intensity. We decided to use Martin MACs because they are such a good multifunctional light and have a good intensity.”

“At the larger dance parties there are usually several rooms catering for the different genres of techno music,” said Brian. “Consequently we look for different attributes in lighting for each area.” BLM used MAC 500s above the larger dance floor while Martin RoboScans kept the crowd energized in Utopia 12’s smaller rooms.

“In the hardcore room we like lights that are very fast and we’re still using some Martin Roboscan 1016’s, one of the earliest Martin lights,” Brian adds. “We’ve had them so many years and they’ve never needed any major repairs. If you look after your gear, it’ll look after you.”

Brian Walsh and Jason Fripp designed Utopia 12 with both Jason and Ian Jackson programming and operating the show. Lighting was supplied by Show Technology, Australia.