Local event suppliers Lighting & Sound Co., Main Stage Productions join forces

Some of the Lighting & Sound Co. crew. (Photos courtesy Logan Adams)

After sharing a building for a few years, two locally based companies from the events industry have officially joined forces.

Event lighting and audio-visual service provider The Lighting & Sound Co. recently announced its acquisition of mobile staging supplier Main Stage Productions. 

The deal closed March 26. Terms were not disclosed. 

Lighting & Sound Co. has been around since 2014, said director of technical services Jonathan Blake. The company originally started in concert lighting and then broadened its reach, now doing lighting and audio services for weddings and corporate events, as well as special events such as garden light shows.

The company has done lighting and audio work for Maymont, including providing the glow for Maymont’s annual Garden Glow event, as well as work for Colonial Williamsburg, Winchester, VCU, University of Richmond, Sports Backers, Kings Dominion and others. 

Main Stage has operated in the Richmond area for over 20 years, providing stages as a vendor of Quebec-based Stageline, a designer and manufacturer of hydraulic mobile stages.

Among Main Stage’s notable local accounts is providing the concert stage used for all productions at Brown’s Island. 

Logan Adams, director of operations at Lighting & Sound, said conversations about an acquisition began with Main Stage president and owner Lee Johnson in 2020, around the time the two companies began sharing a 20,000-square-foot warehouse at 4208 Sarellen Road in eastern Henrico. The two companies have worked together over the years, with Lighting & Sound having delivered some Main Stage equipment to customers. 

“It kind of just fit that when [Johnson] was ready to retire, that we would acquire his business,” Adams said. “We discussed sharing a warehouse space with the ultimate goal of acquiring his assets.” 

Lighting & Sound has done lighting and audio work in Maymont, Colonial Williamsburg and elsewhere.

The acquisition brings over a team of three from Main Stage, making Lighting & Sound’s headcount 12-15 employees, Blake said. 

The acquisition allows for Lighting & Sound to become a comprehensive, “all under one roof,” full-service technical event production company, which, though it is becoming more customary, isn’t always typical in the mid-Atlantic region, Blake said.  

“Certainly it doesn’t seem to be very common, at least in this region, for event audio-visual suppliers to handle all of those different services that are required for a special event,” Blake said. 

Existing Main Stage clients can expect a continuation of all services. Lighting & Sound is still using the Main Stage name to help with the transition, Adams said, but that could change in the future. 

“Main Stage Productions has certainly been a staple here in Richmond for many, many years,” Adams said. “We certainly want to continue to bring the services that [Johnson] has offered to the region, and we want to amplify it.”