SMART Productions, headed by Josef “Pepa” Ženíšek, supplied all the technical elements required for the two venues – Prague’s O2 Arena and Ostrava Arena – involved in hosting the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)’s World Championship tournament. They also co-ordinated technical production in the Prague FanZone area.

Slovenian writer, actor and TV personality Lado Bizovicar presented the 2024 “Slovenska Muska” extravaganza event, staged at Ljubljana’s Stožice arena, the first time in the venue’s history that a 360-degree show had been presented, which bumped up the capacity to 13,000, with every seat sold.

Máté Lukacsovics and Ale Geszler from Budapest, Hungary-based lighting design studio Highlight Studios created an eye-popping design for a high-profile one-off concert by Hungarian artist and pop-rock band Valmar at the 12,500-capacity Budapest Arena … which was completely sold out.

Dynamic French rapper Dinos played a special high-profile one-off gig at Paris’s famous Accor Arena to celebrate the launch of his latest studio album, Hiver à Paris. For his first show at this prestigious venue, lighting designer Damien Dufaitre from BlackMoon Design created a unique environment with 90 x Robe MegaPointes at the core of the concept.

Phenomenally successful Dutch singer-songwriter duo Nick & Simon (Nick Schilder & Simon Keizer) played 6 sold-out nights at Rotterdam’s famous Ahoy Arena in The Netherlands, the culmination of their “Nu of Ooit” (Now or Someday) tour which also was the last time they will appear in this format, as after 17 years of performing together, both artists now intend to pursue solo careers.

‘The Snow Queen’ premiered at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland, a unique ‘ice ballet’ extravaganza produced by the Tampere Hall & Kantelinen Company, which is as edgy as it is elegant and exciting!

German event technology service provider DLP Motive supplied full technical design and production – staging, automation and kinetic elements, lighting, sound, video, and LED screens – to ESL Gaming for the 10th anniversary of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) e-gaming tournament, including two three-day events staged at the 10,000 capacity Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland, and the 18,500 capacity Lanxess-Arena in Cologne, Germany.

The 10,000-seat capacity Bilbao Arena this year for the first time hosted the 2022 FIBA Basketball Champions League Final 4 season-ending tournament with over 100 Robe moving lights highlighting the action for a venue packed with enthusiastic basketball fans plus a huge televised audience.

A substantial Robe moving light rig – over 350 fixtures – was specified for the brand new 20,000 capacity MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary.

Denmark’s thriving live music scene re-energised in style after the country’s post pandemic ‘Freedom Day’ with several prominent shows and events including a landmark performance at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen by The Minds of 99 who smashed it as only the second ever Danish act to play there, in front of 50,000 ecstatic fans, complete with a high impact show design from Jannik Kenneth Skov Jensen.