The highlight of Liverpool's tenure as European Capital of Culture for 2008 took place when the city hosted perhaps its most unusual visitor, a giant mechanical spider weighing around 20 tonnes and with a leg span of 15 meters.
The spider, christened "La Princesse" was brought to life by French theatrical engineers "La Machine". La Machine was formed in the early 1990s as a collaboration between artists, designers, fabricators and technicians. The company creates extraordinary theatrical machines, permanent installations, and also its own theatrical productions.

Essential Lighting was approached by Unusual Services, who provided production management and technical coordination for the event, to provide equipment to light the Spider at seven different locations around the city. Working to a brief in French from designer Hervé Dilé to light the spider in harsh industrial tones, Essential provided a largely generic rig, consisting of Molefay blinders, Fluorescent tubes, IP65 rated Powerfloods housing light sources ranging from sodium to metal halide and everything in between. Effects lighting was provided by a small rig of Mac 500s and Atomic strobes housed in weatherproof domes all controlled from an Avolites Pearl.

Producer: Artichoke
Production Services: Unusual Services Ltd
Production Rigging: Unusual Rigging Ltd
Lighting Design: Hervé Dilé for La Machine
Project Manager: Loz Wilcox for Essential Lighting