French National Day – July 14 @ Paris/France

François — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:17:43 +0000

The July 14 in Paris is one of the most iconic dates on the French events calendar. Each year, the capital transforms into a vast open-air stage where heritage, music, light, and pyrotechnics come together in a spectacular celebration of the national holiday.

At the heart of this exceptional setup, I had the opportunity to take part in the lighting design for this unique evening on several occasions — 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025 — in collaboration with international artistic and technical teams. The show combines lighting scenography, programming, musical synchronization, and visual effects to accompany a moment that brings together hundreds of thousands of spectators on site and millions of TV viewers.
(The 2020 edition remains special: in the midst of the pandemic, the show took place without an audience in the streets of Paris. A strange and unique moment, designed primarily for the television broadcast.)

The Eiffel Tower and the Champ de Mars then become the focal point of a monumental tableau where light engages in dialogue with the architecture and the Paris sky. Each sequence is designed to heighten the audience’s emotion and underscore the symbolic power of this event.

This large-scale production requires extreme technical precision and close coordination among the various disciplines — lighting, video, pyrotechnics, sound, and artistic direction — to create an immersive experience worthy of this national occasion.

Taking part in this show is always a special moment: working in the heart of Paris, on an event followed worldwide, is a reminder of how light can become a true language in the service of collective emotion.

paris – Open White

French National Day – July 14 @ Paris/France