A bit about us.
Forestay Lighting emerged in 2024, from a goal to make high-quality lighting equipment accessible to designers. We stock a carefully selected and well-maintained inventory of LED and moving light fixtures for rental, with the cable, control, and power distribution to support them. Our shop is open by appointment only, and while we are based in Boston, we'll get our fixtures to your show, no matter where. We take pride in our helping to bring your artistic vision to life, whether it's for a tiny storefront theatre show, a concert, a large corporate event, or anything in between. We're eager to collaborate with you on your upcoming show!
Who we are
My name is John Holmes, and I’m the owner of Forestay. We aim to provide a unique and tailored experience as a lighting equipment partner, serving the Boston area, and specializing in the performing arts. Remaining close-by and easily accessible to the Boston Arts, Production, & Events communities, we maintain a brick-and-mortar location inside Boston in Hyde Park. Open by appointment, our 800-square foot warehouse and prep space is available to clients; complete with a loading dock, restrooms, wi-fi, and a minifridge stocked with ice-cold water.
Forestay’s humble beginning consisted of two lighting fixtures in a Cubesmart storage facility in Waltham, MA. Since 2024, Forestay began - and continues to grow - without corporate or investor money; entirely funded by income from freelance lighting work as capital. That’s what makes us so special - we have no-one to answer to, no-one to demand that we increase profits, and no-one to tell us who to cater to. Forestay was built by lighting people, for lighting people.
With this in mind, every fixture that we add to our inventory has to pass a test; whether we would choose to spec that fixture on our own shows. While budgets may often constrain designers to sub-par fixtures at large rental houses; at Forestay we believe that everyone deserves access to the best tools possible to bring their designs to life. All of our equipment is time-tested, and built by trusted and well-known manufacturers with longstanding relationships to the industry.
Forestay has provided equipment rental services to a variety of clients in the Boston area and beyond, including Arlekin Players, Speakeasy Stage Co., Brandeis University, The HUB Theatre Co., The Theatre Offensive, Moonbox Productions, Catchlight Design, Port Lighting, High Output, Massasoit College, New Bedford Festival Theatre, The HIVE Theatre Company, JTG Productions, Harvard University Theatre Department, Revels, Melrose Youth Ballet, and more.
These organizations, and all others with whom we have collaborated, trust us to provide exceptional service, with extremely responsive support. When you need something, we are truly just a phone call away.
Forestay is, and always will be a company that cares about its clients as well as the performing arts community at large. We are always looking for opportunities for partnership to make the community a better and more welcoming place, especially for individuals from diverse backgrounds. Forestay is a strong supporter of diversity in the entertainment industry.
Our History
Forestay began with two moving head fixtures, sitting in their foam inserts, on the cement floor of the unit. Our first show was Legally Blonde at Massasoit College, for which we acquired six more moving lights (our first MAC Auras) and two dimmer racks. As one may have guessed - once you have fixtures, you need cable; and within seven months, there was no more room.
5’x 10’
March 21, 2024
Unit 3280
7.5’x 10’
October 28, 2024
Unit 4122
Relieved to have the extra 25 square feet to organize our equipment, we purchased pallet racking, and the next several shows prompted the addition of MAC Quantum Profiles, Solaframe 750s, and a few JDC1s. At this point, our inventory as it is today, began to take shape, and we found more and more often that we were able to supply an entire package for a show. As you could imagine, fitting all of this equipment in 75 square feet became difficult. Rentals continued to go out, as we gained Catchlight Design, JTG Productions, and High Output as clients.
After a short-lived twenty days in unit 4122, we found that we needed usable prep space in addition to the packed storage space, so we added another hundred square feet.. Over the next year or so, we almost tripled our inventory, adding Color Force II 12 units, Color Force II 72 units, Martin Mac Encore Performance CLDs, and Martin Mac Quantum Wash fixtures. Our rentals in this phase included a fixture package to Melrose Youth Ballet, one to Revels, and to several small theatre productions.
10’x 10’
November 17, 2024
Unit 4317
Our last unit lasted almost a year until the inevitable happened - space became tight and we once again needed to move. We chose to add a 200 square foot unit, while keeping a separate unit for prepped fixtures ready for pickup. Over the next several months, we continued to expand our inventory by adding more of each fixture that we owned, and doubled our cable inventory.
10’x 20’
October 26, 2025
Unit 4058
10’x 30’
February 18, 2026
Unit 4028-4030
Our final move within Cubesmart took place in February of 2026, as we added three hundred square feet of space - now filling five units. Forestay had found a place in the Boston Lighting market, frequently renting to a variety of theatres and performing arts organizations including Speakeasy Stage, Brandeis University, The HUB Theatre Co., Moonbox Productions, & The HIVE Theatre Company. As requests for LED pars and ellipsoidals continued to grow, we finally made the decision to add Colorsource Spot VXTs to our inventory. In this time of great growth, we were fortunate to welcome Henry Hutchinson, who joined the Forestay team in April. With the spot’s popularity, we later added the Colorsource Fresnel V Max, and continue to expand our inventory of both. With those fixtures came cases, hampers, and running out of space once again.
100 Business St, Unit 1D Hyde Park, MA 02130
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August 1, 2026
Needing a space that clients could comfortably enter, with a loading dock and a space we could truly call our own, we finally made the decision to upgrade to our own warehouse. After many tours, John decided on a unit and signed the contract mid-June, for an August first move-in. On August first, we rented a 26-foot box truck, packed it full of Forestay’s entire inventory, and drove it from Waltham to our new home in Hyde Park. Over the coming weeks, the warehouse’s current organization structure became realized, setting aside a large space with ample room for prep. We hope to remain at 100 Business St for the next several years, and through our next phase of growth!