Elation Lighting Powers UFC Freedom 250 at the White House

	Photo: UFC Freedom 250

When UFC Freedom 250 brought a seven-fight UFC card to the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, 2026, it created a production unlike any other in the sport's history. Staged as part of the US' 250th-anniversary celebrations, the outdoor event placed a temporary arena against one of the US' most recognizable backdrops.

The event extended to a Fan Fest on The Ellipse, where attendees gathered for live entertainment, ceremonial weigh-ins, and an outdoor watch party. Elation lighting played a key role in both event environments, with Tom Sutherland using Proteus fixtures for the televised fight card, while Andre Petrus used Proteus and Paragon fixtures to illuminate the expansive Fan Fest.

Felix Lighting supplied lighting for the fight-card event, while 4Wall supplied lighting for the Fan Fest.

Sutherland, CEO and designer at DX7 Design Inc., joined the project at creative director Jesse Blevins' request to create a lighting environment to match scale of the occasion while remaining respectful of its setting.

At the heart of the design was a massive overhead truss structure, "the claw," that housed the lighting gear. It was built around four main legs, with large X-shaped trusses spanning between them. A series of progressively smaller arch trusses filled the spaces between the legs of the X, creating a layered, symmetrical overhead.

"We wanted to create something people would remember, but we also had to be very conscious and respectful of where we were," Sutherland says. "We were working alongside architecture that bears such enormous historical significance, so regardless of what we placed in front of it, the two had to blend rather than compete. The design needed to hold its own against the scale of the setting, while the White House itself was always treated with the utmost respect. Everything we did worked back from that."

Elation lighting played key roles in illuminating the fighting ring -- the Octagon -- and enhancing the structure's visual impact. Sutherland used linear pixel fixtures along the inner and outer edges of the curves to define the structure, while 66 Elation Proteus Excalibur beam fixtures provided the aerial component. Mounted primarily along the upper X trusses, the Excaliburs projected powerful beams into the sky, with additional units positioned on top of the video screen facing The Ellipse.

"From the very beginning, I knew the Excalibur was going to be one of the fixtures we needed," Sutherland says. "We had to make the structure read from every angle, including all those helicopter shots, and we needed a beam that could cut through the environment and the weather. When we first turned them on, they were incredibly impressive, and when we started seeing images appear online from all around Washington, DC, that told me we had made the right choice."

While the Excaliburs gave the production its aerial scale, 60 Elation Proteus Maximus moving heads provided the primary key lighting for the Octagon.

Mounted above the fighting area on the claws' curved sections, the 50,000-lumen Maximus fixtures were focused downward to create consistent illumination across the Octagon. "The Octagon is a surprisingly difficult thing to light because of the fencing," Sutherland explains. "We had to think very carefully about how to light it from the inside out and how to use the framing to shape the light without creating shadows. At the same time, the fixtures were mounted so high that we needed a lot of intensity."

Beyond the Octagon itself, the lighting design extended into the White House grounds. Each fighter made an extended walk to the arena beginning inside the White House, with some walks lasting approximately five minutes. The production therefore required lighting to extend through the architecture and along the routes used by the fighters and their entourages.

While the UFC fight card took place on the White House South Lawn, a second large-scale event took place immediately to the south on The Ellipse. On June 13, weigh-ins took place on the Ellipse, followed by a Zac Brown Band concert. On June 14, the Fan Fest continued, culminating in a huge outdoor watch party where fans followed the fights simultaneously on giant viewing screens.

Petrus designed the lighting for the entire Fan Fest site, including the stage used for the weigh-ins and the Zac Brown Band performance. To create an immersive fan experience with an outdoor festival atmosphere, Petrus designed the site so the audience was part of the action.

"The scale of the site meant we needed lighting everywhere, and everything had to be IP rated," he says. "Safety was my first priority, and stylization and the stage were a close second. The concept for the fan zone was to surround the entire site with 40' tall ladders dressed in lighting and with lighting on top. We wanted the fans to feel like they were within the UFC experience as opposed to just watching it."

With a site more than 1,000' wide, Petrus distributed fixtures throughout the fan zone, with weather protection being a fundamental requirement. His Elation package included 152 Proteus Maximus for large-scale site wash lighting, along with 26 Proteus Lucius to illuminate signage throughout the site. Eight Maximus fixtures were mounted on each of eighteen 40' site lighting towers, with 14 of those positioned around the perimeter of The Ellipse.

Petrus turned to Elation's 50,000-lumen Paragon LT with TruTone variable CRI engine. Forty-four Paragon LT profile moving heads were positioned on 60' key-light towers and used for stage key lighting.

"The Paragon LT was particularly useful for the key lighting, where we had 150' throws from those towers. The fixtures performed exactly as expected. We were able to use the Elation package across the different elements of the event, from the weigh-ins through the live performance and the watch party."

The overhead stage structure incorporated separate broadcast and musical-performance trims. "For the weigh-ins, we wanted the backdrop of the stage to be the White House, so we left the back wide open. During the Zac Brown Band performance, we closed the stage to give a different feel for the show by lowering in the upstage side of the truss to create a 'wall of light'."

Sutherland extends his thanks to creative director Jesse Blevins for bringing DX7 Design onto the project, while Petrus acknowledges Robby Kurtz and the 4Wall team for their support, as well as Blevins and programmers Dane Kick, Clay Joiner, and Luke Carver.