Novice with big dreams for our venue!

[simony]

Hi AusChristmasLighting forum!
I'm glad I found this site and am eager to hear advice and thoughts for some plans I have...
We are a large church located in west Melbourne and are exploring the idea of covering our building in festive lighting displays this Christmas. Our location is incredible on a major intersection corner and it seems prime for a big dazzling display to entertain the community. We would compliment our light shows with other fun entertainment on our property like live Christmas music, food trucks etc. on the weekend evenings throughout December.

BUT- we honestly have no idea where to start.

Perhaps it's best to hire a big display and installers, but who?
Or we could invest in lights for year-after-year, but which lights?
It could be run to music, or if that's too complex just normal light changes and variety could work too. We could also sprinkle some production lighting onto our building for colour wash.

We do have a budget that's not zero haha. Probably several thousand $ to kick things off.

I noticed the upcoming Expo and will try to attend to connect with this community, but I welcome any advice or offers for further conversations/emails/phone calls as we explore the concept.

Perhaps there is someone on the forum that would love the challenge to help deliver it! It's a big building.


Thanks,
Simon

 

[Kent]

Welcome to the forum.

As you mentioned, the Melbourne mini is coming up in a few weeks. Attending that will by far be your best option to get some advice, and possibly rope a few in to help. Your timing is extremely fortunate.

 

[thewanderingpine]

Hey @simony, welcome!.
I'm probably biased - but I think the Melbourne Mini is absolutely worth your time to attend.

If you haven't already - it's probably worth reaching out to the team at LMC. I'm sure there are other churches that do some amount of Christmas lights - but LMC are the only really big one that I can think of. https://www.facebook.com/LmcLights/

 

[simony]

Hey @simony, welcome!.
I'm probably biased - but I think the Melbourne Mini is absolutely worth your time to attend.

If you haven't already - it's probably worth reaching out to the team at LMC. I'm sure there are other churches that do some amount of Christmas lights - but LMC are the only really big one that I can think of. https://www.facebook.com/LmcLights/

Thanks for highlighting LMC. I have reached out to them. What they've done looks great!

I will aim to get myself and our techy volunteer to Melb Mini

 

[MikeKrebs]

Have your team page through the 101 Manual (top left on main forum page). It has a lot of basics.

Read this thread for a successful first year show. @Johnnyboy also did a followup post on what worked and didn't for him. He put a lot of info in the posts about all the stuff he bought and his followup has some tidbits about what he would do differently.

2023 Journey - First display for JohnnyBoy

Hi All, About time I created a post with all that i have learnt so far and how my journey is unfolding. In 2022 i got into the Christmas spirit buying a bunch of standard led lights and ornaments and decorated the back yard. Then in the Boxing day sales this evolved into buying more lights and...

auschristmaslighting.com

 

[simony]

Have your team page through the 101 Manual (top left on main forum page). It has a lot of basics.

Read this thread for a successful first year show. @Johnnyboy also did a followup post on what worked and didn't for him. He put a lot of info in the posts about all the stuff he bought and his followup has some tidbits about what he would do differently.

2023 Journey - First display for JohnnyBoy

Hi All, About time I created a post with all that i have learnt so far and how my journey is unfolding. In 2022 i got into the Christmas spirit buying a bunch of standard led lights and ornaments and decorated the back yard. Then in the Boxing day sales this evolved into buying more lights and...

auschristmaslighting.com

Thanks!
Yep I have downloaded the amazing manual. I understand some - but others in our church will know much more than me so will pass it along!