Airstar Spreads the Christmas Spirit with Inflatables and Lighting Solutions

Every year, Airstar lighting solutions and inflatable structures are in high demand when the Christmas season comes around. This year was no exception, with high-end brands, museums, department stores, and local authorities all turning to Airstar to get people into the Christmas spirit.

Because of the wow effect they procure at public events, Airstar solutions are getting more and more popular in the US. In Washington, DC for extent, the National Portrait Gallery museum, Smithsonian Institution, trussed three LED Lunix balloons as ornament toppers for their Christmas decorations. The imposing balloons (measuring between 2m and 2.5m wide) were fitted with green and red colored covers and lit by 16 10W RGBW LED bulbs I each unit.

In the sunny city of Nice however, residents and tourists hardly ever see any snow, getting in the Christmas mood requires some imagination. So the town hall decided to make it easier by installing a gigantic snow globe for the whole month of December: They called in on Airstar expertise to wrap up the Soleil Fountain and its Apollo statue with a 20m large by 11m high transparent hemisphere. A foam gun, 15 Airstar LED wall washers, and six 300 LED spotlight fixtures animated the snow globe. Everything was DMX-timed and managed.

Hélène Becour, engineer at the City of Nice and manager of the Christmas lighting enthused: "This unique technical and aesthetic challenge was very well received by the public, who got involved in social media with pictures and enthusiastic comments. We are already working on new ideas to make it even more radiant, so we are very much looking forward to next year."

A further four Airstar Pendulair lighting balloons with Christmas ball envelopes paved the main pedestrian street while a transparent balloon, encapsulating a lighting star, overlooked a living nativity scene in front of a church in the old city.

Meanwhile, the French department store Les Galeries Lafayette, famous for presenting magical Christmas decorations every year, set its sight on three large Stars by Airstar hung on their Bordeaux store balcony. Measuring between 180cm and 240cm, these stars shone a Christmassy light right through December. The project was managed by the Airstar south-east branch, which fitted an IP68 fan as well as a waterproof LED band on 24V to cope with the weather.

Snow globe seemed to be trending for the festive period: a reseller of the high end watch brand Tag Heuer ordered an Airstar Clearsphere to animate the city of Chengdu, in the heart of China. The Shanghai based Airstar subsidiary managed to create and test the structure in its workshop before shipping it and building it on site in time for the end of the year celebrations. The 7.5m wide Airstar Clearsphere animated the busy shopping street for the whole month of December.

Antoine Métais, project manager at Airstar China explains: "We have installed blowers inside the 60cm-high globe base and made holes so the finely cut size polyethylene pieces are blown vertically inside the structure. We also tucked away smaller blowers between the decorations so the 'snow' could be blown back towards the holes, creating a permanent animation."