Illuminate and Elation light Mount Rushmore for Historic Freedom 250 celebration

Oct 28

3 min read

Full-service production company Illuminate had a busy Freedom 250, providing lighting for two of the nation’s most high-proﬁle celebrations. One of those was the Freedom 250 event at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on July 3, where a dynamic Elation lighting system complemented a spectacular ﬁreworks display beneath the iconic memorial.

Pyro Spectaculars produced the ﬁreworks design and production, while Illuminate’s Caleb Franke designed and programmed the complementary light show. Illuminate collaborated with Pyro Spectaculars on a 20-minute presentation that brought lighting and ﬁreworks together in a carefully choreographed visual narrative, rather than treating them as separate elements.

Illuminate made a signiﬁcant investment in Elation equipment for the Freedom 250 projects, and deployed a combination of high-output wash, beam, proﬁle and panel ﬁxtures across the Mt. Rushmore site. Key to the design were 16 Elation Proteus Brutus ﬁxtures positioned at various locations along the Presidential Trail, which leads down to the Grand View Terrace that provides visitors with a close-up view of Mount Rushmore. The powerful 75,000-lumen LED wash/FX ﬁxtures were used to illuminate the four presidential faces from multiple angles.

“We had the Brutus ﬁxtures positioned approximately 300 to 600 feet from the faces, so output was a major consideration during the design process,” says Franke, adding that with limited opportunities for advance testing, he had some initial concerns about whether the ﬁxtures would have enough power at those distances.

Six Elation Proteus Atlas ultra-long-throw beam FX ﬁxtures were also positioned along the trail, creating aerial beameﬀects that complemented the ﬁreworks and interacted with the pyrotechnics' smoke. With its laser-pumped phosphor light engine and highly concentrated beam, the Atlas gave Illuminate the reach needed to create visible aerial eﬀects across the expansive site.

“The thing about the Atlas is the beam—it just goes on forever,” Franke says. “It comes out of the lens, and it just doesn’t stop.” Illuminate also deployed 10 Elation Proteus Lucius LED proﬁle ﬁxtures along the trail to light the rock surrounding the presidential faces, adding color, gobos and animation eﬀects to create texture across the memorial.

Getting equipment into position presented another logistical challenge, with a high-line rigging team enabling the crew to transport gear up the mountain. Four positions above the memorial each housed six Elation Proteus Excalibur beam ﬁxtures and three Elation Pulse Panel FX ﬁxtures, with pyrotechnic equipment interspersed among the lighting.

The Excalibur ﬁxtures produced powerful aerial beam eﬀects from above the presidential heads, while the Pulse Panel FX ﬁxtures illuminated the smoke from the ﬁreworks.

“All of the aerial shells were being shot in front of the lights, and it created a lot of smoke,” Franke explains. “We were able to light the smoke really well with the Pulse Panel FX and highlight the really cool atmosphere above theheads in that space. That worked really well.”

Obsidian Control Systems equipment was also used on the project, with Illuminate deploying Netron EN12 Ethernet-to-DMX nodes and DMX10-5 splitters to distribute lighting control data across the site.

Color played an important role throughout the show, with Illuminate making extensive use of red, white, and blue looks across the memorial. “We used a lot of red, white and blue on the faces, and being able to pull those colors directly from the color wheel looked great,” says Franke, who adds that there were also CMY color moments.

The Proteus Brutus ﬁxtures also provided animation eﬀects, while the Proteus Lucius units added texture with gobos and animation.