Scotland – The most memorable music festivals often seem to spring out of the land in which they take place. Such is the case with the iconic Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival. Located on the historic 1,150-acre Belladrum Estate in the highlands just west of Inverness, the three-day event is rich in Scottish traditions from late night Ceilidh dancing to vibrant story telling.
Steve “Mac” McCracken of Mac-Events drew on the latter when lighting the 2026 festival headliner show by the multi-award winning local legend, Callum Beattie. Given that Beattie’s set was 90-minutes, McCracken had ample time to unfold what he called a “visual story” that moved in unison with his client’s music.
“The aim was to create a lighting show that was energetic, powerful and really connected to the music.,” said McCracken. “We wanted a strong visual identity, with intense reds, ambers and fiery tones creating a feeling of heat and aggression. The lighting was to feel like part of the performance, rather than simply illuminate the stage.”
To do this, McCracken and his team worked their ChamSys Magic MQ250MStadium Console to conjure up programmed sequences and live busking looks from their Limelight Event Services rig. “Our lighting followed the music and energy of the performance,” he said. “We could build looks gradually, strip things back and then hit the bigger moments with maximum movement, colour and intensity. The MQ250M was ideal for this because we could have a large number of programmed looks and effects available while still retaining full live control.”
“We also used our floor package to create a specific look for Callum while still having the festival rig to complement the design,” continued McCracken. “The festival rig was the main structure for the larger-scale lighting system, particularly the overhead coverage and fixtures already installed in the rig. Our own hanging and wheeled pre-rigs were then integrated into that system to give us the specific looks we wanted for Callum. Limelights Event Services provided a great platform for us to build the show around with their festival rig, in addition to giving us great support all around, Festivals like this are always a team effort, and having a good relationship between the artist, lighting team, production and festival supplier makes a massive difference.”
Not only did McCracken and his team benefit from being with a supportive festival crew, but they also relied on the MQ250M to make the production process easier. “Even under the best of circumstances, there are always challenges when taking a pre-programmed show into a festival environment because the available rig can be different from what you originally designed around,” he explained. “The MQ250M made that process much easier. We could adapt the patch, fixture selection and programming quickly and integrate our own hanging and wheeled pre-rigs with the festival system.”
McCracken says that “flexibility” was one of the biggest advantages of using the MQ250M on this project. He also listed “speed of programming,” and Playback as key features. On the latter, he noted, “Playback and busking capabilities were critical, allowing us to have programmed looks ready to go while still being able to react live to the music and performance. The MQ250M allowed us to build a large part of the show in advance and then adapt it once we knew exactly what the festival rig looked like. That saved a huge amount of time.”
Having saved this time, the Mac-Events team was able to focus more on the creative, story- telling aspect of the show. And oh, what a story there was to be told, full of energy, surprises and passion… qualities right at home in this corner of the world.
