Hay Festival

Over the past decade, Hay Festival has grown into a global not-for-profit that runs annual festivals of literature and the arts all around the world.

From July 15 to 18, 2010, the festival was held in Mexico for the first time — and the venue was the magic city of Zacatecas. We had the opportunity to create temporary, colorful scenarios that followed Hay Festival's institutional image across historic spaces: San Agustín Church, the Rafael Coronel Museum, La Ciudadela del Arte cultural center and the Manuel Felguérez Abstract Art Museum.

Linear and accent fixtures with color-changing LED technology gave us the flexibility to design a different mood for each speaker — shifting the character of a centuries-old room from one session to the next, then resetting it again before the next voice took the stage.

One palette of light, a different mood for every voice that takes the stage.

Sandra Luna Design

GallerySelected views

San Agustín Church staged for a session, dome and stage washed in magenta

San Agustín Church — the full nave, dome and stage washed magenta as an audience gathers for a session.

Carved baroque ornament graded from pink into blue

A detail of the carved baroque ornament, graded from pink into deep blue across a single surface.

Festival venue exterior at dusk, windows glowing red against a blue sky

At dusk the venue glows from within — red light in the windows set against the last blue of the sky.

Vaulted ceiling washed in green light between carved arches

Between the carved arches, the vault takes a wash of green — one of the moods cycled through across the evening.

Barrel-vaulted brick ceiling lit magenta above a stair

A barrel-vaulted brick ceiling lit magenta, the color carrying the room well after dark.

Project designed in collaboration with SáaS Lighting · Zacatecas, 2010.

More WorkAcross the studio

Restaurant

Cerro Viento Restaurant

Boutique Hotel Casa Lum

The American School Foundation