George Fontes
Managing Director of Fontes Pro Sound & Light | Host of World Ablaze with George Fontes | 27 Years in Live Event Production
George Fontes is the managing director of Fontes Pro Sound & Light, the Central Valley production company he grew out of a professional sound business that started in 1999 in Ceres, California. Under his direction FPSL expanded into complete event production: audio, video, lighting, stage, drape, CO2 effects and confetti, tour support, event rentals, and event management. Its client list runs from UC's Cowchella and the Treats and Beats Festival to the Sierra Music Festival, which has featured Craig Morgan, Frankie Ballard, Ben Harper, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and the Black Crowes. His install work includes the 22,000 square foot Mirage banquet hall in Sacramento, built on six FBT Muse 210 line array boxes per side, Archon 110 boxes for side coverage, and four Subline 218sa subwoofers under the stage.
He came into the pandemic managing 32 people on payroll and a business built on gatherings, and he came out of it with a company that had learned to sell what did not require a crowd. Church LED walls, permanent installations, and remote corporate events kept money moving while touring was frozen. He talks about that stretch without dressing it up, including the parts that were luck, the parts that were hustle, and the parts that were just refusing to lay everyone off. The aftershock gets the same treatment: 2025 and 2026 budgets that collapsed long after the shutdown, canceled festivals, and businesses getting bought up.
He now hosts World Ablaze with George Fontes, a politics, news, and geopolitics show built on OSINT research, direct argument, and guest conversations, and he co hosts Random Thoughts with Manuel and George, which streams live on Thursdays. On Space Tomatoes S3-EP13 ("Dead Stages"), Havok and LX get the full field report: the shutdown, the payroll of 32, the church LED wall installs that kept the company alive, tour riders and the gear clients buy so they stop renting it, why monitor mixing is harder than front of house, RF coordination, backing tracks, Auto Tune country, and then the wider arc through crowd psychology, Le Bon, Bernays, data centers, water, the AI build out, and thorium. No scripts. No sacred cows. Just a guy who is still mixing.
Find George: https://worldablazepodcast.com
X and YouTube: @fontesablaze
Fontes Pro Sound & Light: https://fontesprosound.com/
