#ArcRaidersFest2026! This is the story of how 1 man single handedly threw the very first “Arc Raiders Festival”
Not sure if this should be posted in her or r/stagehands. So I figured I would post it here first.
Let preface my story by telling you that I work in the live entertainment industry for a living. I’m a technician working in lighting, rigging, power, special effects (cryo), mobilestages,etc. . . For the sake of simplification let’s just say I’m a stagehand by trade.
With the crazy hours I work, you sleep when you can. And wake up when your body says you have slept enough. So this story begins a little before 4:00 am ona Thursday because I could not sleep any more, and I’m addicted to arc raiders.
After a couple of days off from work and Feeling kind of bored with the game (after having over 300 hours into it) I did what any Stagehand would do… I decided to build a show. So I gathered a couple guitars, a recorder, and a shaker for the band (back line ✔️) and stuck those in my safe pocket. I crafted 3 sets of fireworks , some light smoke grenades, along with 6 sets of glow sticks in every color. blue, green,yellow,and red for a total of 48 lights. (Lighting ✔️) Finally, I went on a hunt for the talent. It took some time and several raids and deaths ( because I wasn’t carrying a weapon) before I found a friendly Lobby and some willing raiders to headline my event. The Riventide map on top of the west beach extraction elevator Was the venue ( night raid of course)
We proceeded to make it to the extract point on the pier on the west side of the map where I handed out the instruments to the band. What happened next is nothing less than amazing. The arc raider gods must have wanted some entertainment because they shined upon us with a perfect lobby of raiders to set the show off. As the band began playing, and raiders slowly began making their way over to us to see what the commotion was all about, I set up the fireworks along the backside of the extraction point along the cliff ( this was for the grand finale) I completely expected things to fall apart right from the beginning, but the arc raider gods , again, were shining upon us that night.
Along with the accumulation of raiders also came arc of course. But as I began to set off the glow sticks that sent a Hugh of multiple colors across the cliff and shining on the band our audience made quick work of any threats coming our way. I quickly hit the extraction button that caused the yellow siren lights to begin to spin and setting off a siren that began to draw what seemed to me like the most raiders I’ve ever experienced in a single lobby to live music. I quickly dropped my smoke grenades to have a good haze going across the stage. I totally expected the bastion I heard in the distance to show up at any moment, figuring into our crowd. Killing raiders and sending everyone else running like a recreation of the Las Vegas shooting. But that didn’t happen. I was amazed of how quick a band of raiders united could make quick work of any threat. explosions were ringing out across the sky and ground!! Any one not killing arc was either dancing or just firing into the sky like New Year’s Eve in Pomona California ( that’s the ghetto where I live) asi ran around setting off more smoke grenades and glow sticks to keep the ambience going, One of the guitarist began freestyling lyrics to the music they were playing. I was absolutely shocked.
The whole lobby had showed up and if they weren’t shooting down arcs they were dancing or emoting their Raider lives away completely forgetting what they had come here to do. The extraction elevator cycled through 3 trips and each time the doors opened it felt like it was being raiders into the map the way our party grew It was AMAZING !!! until….
From out of nowhere a leader flew through the sky landing on top one of the guitarists and the recorder player. 🤦🏼 It was absolute chaos after that. but the band never stopped playing. As our audience of raiders do what that do best and fired their guns the band scattered still playing their tune and some even kept dancing, the elevator dropped for the last time as 20 + raiders piled out crawled into the elevator to go home.
As people laughed and cheered for the great time we all had, I sat back on my coach and couldn’t help but smile . “ another successful show ”, I thought to myself.
I have to say this is probably one of my greatest achievements not only in the game but as a Stagehand. This isn’t a job for allot of us in this industry This is a lifestyle. The drive to constantly help people make memories through music, lighting and effects. Nothing can even parallel that feeling.
It cost me a small fortune in game coins and inventory to make this happen, but the result is priceless. My only regret is that I didn’t record it, or even live stream it on Twitch. Oh well, I guess there is always next years show.
#arcraiderfest2026 #arcraiders #StagehandLife