LED & glow acts

Performers with LED-lit costumes or props (hoops, poi, wings, stilts) for low-light settings.

How it works in practice

LED and glow acts take the shapes people know from fire performance and replace the flame with programmable light. Hoops, poi, staffs, fans, wings and full costumes are lit by battery-powered LEDs, and the better props can be synced to a colour sequence or even run patterns that match a brand palette. Stilt walkers in LED costumes, glow dancers and lit hula hoop acts are the most common bookings around the GTA.

They only work in the dark. A ballroom at full house lights flattens them, so plan the moment around a lighting change: the countdown, the transition to dancing, the arrival on a winter evening. Ask the lighting team to drop the room to a low wash and kill the uplighting or shift it to a deep colour for the length of the set.

In Ontario and the GTA

Open flame in a venue needs venue approval, and fire performers often need fire department approval and a fire watch with extinguishers on top. LED acts avoid that chain. Most hotels and lofts that refuse fire will accept LED, though you should still confirm with the venue in writing, because some have rules about props swinging near low ceilings or chandeliers. Outdoors, LED is the practical choice for festivals with dry grass, tight crowds or a no-flame clause in the park permit.

How to handle it

1. Pick the moment first, then the act. A 5–8 minute LED opener is a different booking from two hours of roaming.
2. Check clear height. Stilts need about 3.5 m and no low doorways; hoop and poi need a clear circle of roughly 3 m around the performer.
3. Get the tech rider: music cue, lighting state, charging power in the green room.
4. Put the blackout and the restore on the run of show with the lighting operator named as owner.

Related tools

Use the entertainment finder to compare LED and glow performers, and the entertainment hours planner to work out how many roaming performers your headcount needs.