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 D.C. 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 two and 2.5 metres wide) were fitted with green and
red coloured covers and lit by 16x 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 20 meter large by 11 metres high transparent hemisphere. A
foam gun, 15 Airstar LED wall washers and six 300W LED spotlight fixtures
animated the snow globe. Everything was DMX timed and managed.

Helene 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 180 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 7.5 metre wide Airstar
Clearsphere animated the busy shopping street for the whole month of December.

Antoine Metais, 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.