Check out yet another successful team effort of Allegra Events and the APG team. This time we set out to transform my favorite venue in the entire Bay Area into a phantasmagoria of colors and patterns using old fashioned theatrical lighting as well as high-tech wireless LED technology. It is a mind boggling experience to just stand there in the center of City Hall, press a button on a remote control and suddenly the entire room turns a different color. I do believe that we achieved what we set out to do, at least that's what I gathered from the enthusiastic comments of the guests and even the seasoned City Hall staff.

We were excited to return to Sacred Hearts Schools in Atherton for yet another fundraising event. Last year we helped to throw a 60's Hippie party (see older posts), this year's theme was "a day at the beach". The dinner and live auction was to be the "evening at the beach", so we decided it would be fun to create a sunset behind the stage using only lighting fixtures and lots of imagination. We call it "painting with light", it is elaborate and time consuming but it is definitely unique and artistic and these were exactly the words we heard over and over again that night.

For this highly anticipated social Gala event we teamed up with our dear old friends from Ideas The Special Events Company. We have been sharing goals and visions with these folks for almost 20 years now and for the last six years also the warehouse address. Looking back I realize that it took me longer to design and fine tune the elaborate fly grid than to actually put it together and rig it from the tent structure. But ultimately it was time well spent, because we got rave reviews on the job and a very happy client. Can you believe this is a tent set over a parking lot and it was gone the next day?

This has been one of our favorite Holiday gigs for years. The gorgeous historic Coconut Grove overlooking the Santa Cruz Boardwalk is only rivaled by the elaborate theme party itself and then everybody gets all costumed up for the big Holiday bash. This year Rick from RHP provided the crazy Alice in Wonderland props while Kier from Allegra and my humble self with the APG team added all the necessary magic to bring the house down. Here's my professional opinion: these Plantronic guys are dead serious about having fun and do not take prisoners when it comes to their annual Holiday party!




The main dining room including the enchanted mushroom forest.

The Blue Room with the Cheshire Cat and Alice's gigantic legs.

The food court turned Red Queens chamber.

"Off with his head!!" she yelled from her throne.

This was our second year at Ka Hula Hou, the Hula dance competition sponsored by the Academy of Hawaiian Arts. The event had doubled in size and the San Mateo Expo Center was barely able to hold the ecstatic crowd. The winner was chosen via noise meter, now try to imagine the thundering noise for first place. We quickly got our own Hula on and also discovered that boiled peanuts taste delicious.

Here is one of our most popular lighting packages in action: string lights combined with architectual lighting. Simple yet elegant, old fashioned yet innovative. The strings are heavy duty, waterproof and UL outdoor rated. We know the safe and proper rigging techniques from the old concert days and then we put the whole shebang on dimmers for control. As you can see everybody feels all warm and fuzzy under the umbrella of lights. That's a very happy client right there.