R90 Lighting was back at The Gorge Amphitheatre for Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland PNW festival, providing the lighting rigs for the Mad Hatter’s Castle and Caterpillar’s Garden stages! The stages were designed by the brilliant Erik Mahowald of Bending Lite Productions and the stage headers and scenic were designed by the kazoo-enthusiast himself, Jeremy Jones. The Castle LD was James McKenna on his trusted ChamSys MQ500M and the Garden LD/VJ combo was the ever-talented Jayson Esguerra on the grandMA3 Full.
This marks the sixth year that we’ve been the lighting support for this iconic festival and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome for this year’s build.
2026’s designs really took advantage of a wide range of our inventory:
Mad Hatter's Castle
Mad Hatter’s Castle Stage Gear and Crew:
Lighting Lead: Maryalice Weed
Lighting Techs: Eugene Cognoman and Dwight Upton
[40] Robe MegaPointe
[52] Robe Spiider
[58] Chauvet Color STRIKE M
[104] Acme Pixel Line IP
[48] Elation Sixbar 1000IP
[4] Elation Paragon M
[24] ADJ Encore LP7IP
[5] Hazebase FAB
Caterpillar's Garden
Caterpillar’s Garden Stage Gear and Crew:
Lighting Lead: Alex Hicks
Lighting Techs: Matt Milliner and Hannah Olsen
[16] Chauvet STRIKE Array 2
[24] ADJ Encore LP7IP
[66] GLP JDC-1
[35] Robe Pointe
[2] Elation Artiste Picasso
[4] Antari F-5 Fazer
[34] Martin Mac One
[38] GLP Wildbar 16
Big thanks to Insomniac and Bending Lite Productions for having us out as the lighting vendor for these two iconic stages!
Every June thousands of ravers descend upon the Gorge Amphitheatre for into a two day fever dream of EDM stages, art installations, and camping. It’s grown into one of the Pacific Northwest’s biggest summer festivals, and a huge part of that comes down to the venue itself.
Beyond Wonderland’s Gorge run exists because the venue’s previous EDM staple, Paradiso, imploded in 2020 after a lawsuit and financial mess between its promoters. Insomniac Events, which already ran Beyond Wonderland in Southern California, stepped in with its own festival to fill the void left by USC’s collapse, debuting the PNW edition in 2021. It’s been a summer fixture ever since.
What Beyond Wonderland PNW Actually Is:
Beyond Wonderland leans hard into its Alice in Wonderland theme, providing an immersive and interactive experience as soon as attendees fall down the rabbit hole.
Musically, the lineup covers a wide range of electronic genres in a single weekend: house, dubstep, bass, trance, drum and bass, all mixed across the stages so there’s always something different happening depending on where you wander.
The 2026 edition ran June 27 and 28, with the VIP preparty kicking off on Friday, June 26.
The Gorge:
The Gorge Amphitheatre is carved into the cliffs above the Columbia River in George, Washington, and it’s routinely ranked among the most scenic concert venues in the country. The natural amphitheatre bowl gives you a breathtaking view of the river and canyon from nearly every point on the hill, and that backdrop does a lot of work for a festival built around spectacle and immersion. Sunset sets at the Gorge have a reputation for a reason. It remains one of the top venues to see a show at in the country.
