IN THE NEWS
28 APRIL 2020 • WWW.LSIONLINE.COM[UK] A walk in the industrial
neighbourhood that surrounds
Commercial Road - the home of
the versatile East End events
venue Troxy - is perhaps the
ideal lead-up to a night that will
bring to life the neon
paraphernalia of the metropolis
as part of an indoor rave party.
For one night, the main hall
of the art-deco former cinema
will be transformed into
a Japanese cityscape, complete
with a canopy of floating
umbrellas above the dancefloor,
a traditional Japanese gate,
blooming cherry tree props
across the auditorium, and
a custom DJ booth made
to look like a temple amidst
the neon city, itself realised
via rectangular stage props
equipped with LED panels. The
whole set-up is fashionably
immersive.
“The Instagram generation
has made this a necessity,”
opens Lefteris Angelidis,
production manager and
founder of event promoter
illumiNaughty and its décor,
lighting, and installation sister
service, Visual Architects.
“Gone are the days when it
was enough to have a DJ on
stage. Today, you can bring the
biggest DJ, but people still won’t
feel like they’re getting a good
experience if they can’t get good
pictures. People need to feel
they are part of an experience -
this is what’s important today.”
And the experience can’t
be ordinary, but rather,
otherworldly. Angelidis explains:
“The Tokyo theme is futuristic -
we tried to merge technologies
into plants, and bring in a DJ
booth that’s disguised as
a temple and pixel-mapped.”
Born in Greece, Angelidis
moved to Manchester with
his parents when he was
young. He was studying to
be a documentary filmmaker
before deciding to start anew
with illumiNaughty, the event
production company he set
up in 2006 after he became
enchanted by the UK’s festival
scene. As illumiNaughty got
busier, sister company Visual
Architects was born.He explains his creative
process: “First I come up with
the concept. I usually draw
this on a piece of paper and
show it to the design team at
Visual Architects, who translate
this concept into a 3D model.
Once that’s approved, the
construction team starts the
build process.”
He continues: “For Tokyo
Rising, we built a tunnel out
of metalwork and covered it
with RGB tape and netting.
The tunnel builds anticipation
for audience members; they
emerge through a Japanese
archway, then above the
dancefloor is a canopy ofumbrellas. We’ve used foliage,
inflatables and neon tubes to
hide the venue’s balcony, and
on stage we’ve built a temple-
like structure, with an LED
screen on the booth in front of
the DJ.
“For the stage lighting, we’ve
worked with the venue’s own
lighting designer,” he says.
“We usually start liaising four
weeks before the event, starting
by explaining the concept and
discussing the colour theme
that we want - essentially, we
provide a ‘mood board’ and the
house team takes it from there.”
At Troxy, long-standing
lighting designer Dan SandersTroxy’s neon wilderness
Teodora Lyubomirova reports from Tokyo Rising, a vibrant club night organised by
promoter illumiNaughty and held at London’s Troxy...B Scenic and visual elements
combine to create a Japanese-
inspired metropolis
C Facing page, top: LD Dan Sanders
with Lefteris Angelidis of
illumiNaughtyPhotos: Geoffrey Hubbel