Lighting Design and Hire in Europe

The UK has the largest concentration of listed operators. ACE Bros is based in London and covers the capital and the wider UK touring and events market. HPSS Ltd operates from Hull in East Yorkshire. STS Touring Productions Ltd is based in Manchester, covering the north of England and the broader touring production market. Further UK operators include Edinburgh ShowLite in Musselburgh near Edinburgh, Entec Sound and Light and Adlib in London, Event Sound and Light Ltd in Chelmsford, Adlib's Liverpool and Paisley operations, and a number of regional suppliers across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Belgium has strong representation. Dee Sound and Light is based in Boom, a short distance from Antwerp and well positioned for the Belgian festival and touring circuit. Splendit operates from Aalst between Brussels and Ghent. Both operators serve the broader European touring market from their Belgian bases, which gives efficient access to France, the Netherlands and Germany. The AED Group operates offices across Belgium in Willebroek, as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK, making it one of the few pan-European lighting suppliers with a multi-country infrastructure.

Beyond the UK and Belgium, Audio Solution is listed in Bucharest covering the Romanian and southeast European market. Craftman operates from Warsaw serving the Polish touring and events circuit. Just Lite operates from Dublin for the Irish market. Acoustic Service is based in Hannover and Alpha Audio and Light BV operates from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

European lighting suppliers typically offer a range of services beyond dry hire of fixtures. Full touring lighting packages include a lighting console, fixtures, cabling, rigging hardware, and a lighting technician or operator. Design services are available from companies with in-house lighting designers who work with artists and production managers from pre-production through to the final show. Some operators specialise in specific fixture types, with LED-focused inventory for lower power consumption on longer tours, or intelligent moving head packages for arena and festival scale productions.

Atmospheric effects including haze, fog, and strobe are often supplied alongside the core lighting package. Video wall integration and pixel mapping are increasingly part of the lighting offer rather than a separate provision, particularly for productions where the lighting designer is also handling content playback and media server operation. Productions planning European tours should confirm with their lighting supplier which countries they cover directly and where they work with local sub-hire partners, as cross-border logistics and carnets for equipment movement are relevant cost and planning factors on multi-country tours.

Europe hosts several of the world's largest music festivals, each requiring substantial lighting production. Glastonbury in the UK, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Roskilde in Denmark, Primavera Sound in Spain, Rock am Ring in Germany, and the summer stadium circuit across France and Italy all demand high-specification lighting rigs for headline stages. Arena touring across European cities from London and Paris to Berlin, Amsterdam and Madrid generates year-round demand for lighting production companies with the logistics capability to move equipment across borders efficiently.

The professional lighting industry trade show Prolight and Sound takes place annually in Frankfurt and is the primary European gathering for lighting technology suppliers, rental companies and touring production buyers. PLASA in London is also a key industry event where European lighting companies exhibit and where touring productions make sourcing decisions. Productions building their lighting supplier shortlist for European tours benefit from meeting operators at these events and reviewing Showcase directory listings alongside those direct conversations. Rigging services are listed separately for productions requiring structural support for lighting rigs. Productions moving equipment across international borders require an ATA Carnet for company-owned gear. The ATA Carnet guidance published by the International Chamber of Commerce is the authoritative reference for carnet documentation, covering procedures relevant to touring productions operating across European and international markets.

The key differentiators when selecting a European lighting supplier are geographic coverage, fixture inventory depth and the company's experience with the specific production format. A supplier based in Belgium or the Netherlands can cover Benelux dates efficiently but may charge significant positioning costs for UK or Iberian dates. Suppliers with multi-country operations, such as those with offices in several European markets, can reduce cross-border logistics complexity and may offer better pricing on multi-country contracts.

For touring productions, consistency of fixture type across legs is a practical consideration. Productions using the same moving head model throughout a tour will have a simpler programming workflow than those sourcing different fixtures from different national suppliers. Discuss touring inventory consistency with any supplier at the quoting stage, and confirm whether they can guarantee the same fixture models across all contracted dates or whether cross-hire from partner companies may be required on specific legs.

If you need a lighting designer, programmer, or touring lighting technician for a European production, Entourage Pro's crew finder connects you with vetted lighting crew. The European lighting design and hire directory on Showcase covers 30 companies across the continent. Visit Showcase Music Directory for sound hire, staging, and sleeper buses across Europe.