Lighting Design for ESC Arena Plus 2025

A first for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel. Arena Plus extended the Grand Final into an entire stadium experience for the first time. Around 36,000 people filled the sold-out St. Jakob Park for a live preshow, interval acts during the voting and several direct connections to the international broadcast. The audience also attempted a karaoke world record by singing ABBA’s “Waterloo” together.

At the centre was the hybrid main stage. Its 20 by 10 metre LED walls served as a performance area for show acts and presenters as well as a large screen for the live broadcast of the ESC Grand Final. More than 600 additional lighting fixtures transformed the stadium into a vast party arena while integrating it with the broadcast from the neighbouring St. Jakobshalle.

The central challenge was to enable high-quality live links into the Eurovision Song Contest final. At the same time, the arena offered no possibility of installing trusses for the lighting design continuously across the entire stadium roof. An additional fixed support structure for the eight trusses required by the white-light system was therefore developed and installed.

The white light was realised through a Follow-Me system using eight targets. The system controlled eight Elation Brutus FS and 16 Ayrton Veloce Profiles, allowing precise and flexible coverage throughout the extensive arena.

For the overall spatial image, I wanted the infield, balconies and audience to become connected parts of the design. The central motif was therefore formed by continuous rings of multipixel LED fixtures across three levels. Roxx Neo, Roxx Neo FX, SGM P6 and GLP Creos were installed along the balcony railings and around the football pitch. This allowed the scale of the arena to remain visible while actively incorporating both the audience and the infield into the broadcast image.

On the main stage, I used floor-mounted JDC Burst fixtures, Cameo Oron H2 units at the sides and Acme Tornados arranged around the stage surface. They created clearly visible lighting effects directed towards the audience and gave the stage a strong presence within the extensive space. Changing interview situations inside the stage cube were handled flexibly with KL Panel XL fixtures and a range of battery-powered units.

Commissioned by the Canton of Basel-Stadt, I was responsible for the Lighting Design. Renderings and Animations of the camera positions were also created during preproduction. On site, I worked as DoP and managed Preprogramming, Lighting Programming and Lighting Operating together with my team.

Show acts: Baby Lasagna, Luca Hänni, Kate Ryan, Anna Rossinelli, DJ Antoine and Marc Sway