Lighting at festivals

[DoctorStar]

Hi Folks,

 

I've been watching bits and bobs of the Biggest Weekend and 1) I thought some of the lighting was very beautiful 2) I wondered how the whole "sharing a festival rig" worked. Everyone appeared to have the same flown rig but equally everyone had looks that fitted their songs.

 

Clearly some of the big acts had extra floor elements but the majority of the rig seemed common. Do the individual LDs get a show file of the rig some times beforehand so they can plan their looks and then, if they're big enough, get to negotiate floor elements? Do they send their show files ahead of time so they are pre-loaded or is it more "on the day"

 

As a teacher who does occasional am dram I am a universe away from this world but it got me thinking as I watched different genres.

 

KR

 

DrS

[niclights]

Every festival is different but often there will be a combination of plot, patch and (to make your life a lot easier) a visualisation file ready made. You can then use this to pre-program, either adapting an existing show or from scratch. Many LD's will bring their own console or maybe have one provided. I've never seen a situation where you can't use your own floor package/set but unless you are headlining it needs to be something that can be setup/removed within the changeovers (including taking into consideration previous/next act). Preferably on wheels with cable looms that are quick to deploy/remove. It can be helpful to have separate techs for this so that you don't have to allow for getting through the crowd to FOH.

[nuttytechy]

It depends on the festival. The festival will provide the plans for the stage to the visiting LDs prior to the date of the gig. The LD will then normally take the info given to him or her and work with it before hand away from the stage then do final touch ups when they are given their time allotted to rehearse, patch, program etc.

 

The floor packages or any extra gear are normally provided by the act with a very quick load in and get out for the change overs.

 

There is a guy in the states on you tube which could be a good watch about being a LD for different events etc

 

 

 

 

Iain.

[ImagineerTom]

I don’t work the number 1 stages at festivals but clock up a few dozen #2 & #3 stages as tent master. In those spaces it’s very rare that an act travels with their own LX or video team but the “house” teams are phenomenally good at busking it and usually spend a whole day programming complicated pallets and states before the festival so they have lots of complicated looking sequences at their disposal.

 

The festival world is also fairly small - an operator can easily work 12 UK festivals in a year and there’s only a limited number of acts working the circuit so I’ve noticed many op’s know the band/set because they worked with them a few weeks previously so aren’t actually busking completely blind. By the time you get to the festivals in September it’s noticable how incredibly complex the lighting and video visuals have gotten simply by virtue of this being the 8th time the team have had to “improvise” this set.

[empyfree]

It’s been a while, but I remember doing lots of “non headline” acts one after the other, I’d have plenty of time to program and came up with some fairly decent stuff.... then the headline LD came along, asked me to program in a couple of basic palettes and then blew my efforts out of the water. The difference was they knew the music and could line things up.

[DoctorStar]

Thanks for the info and link. http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

[grandMA_the_2nd]

Its like a dentists waiting room... for a grown up festival everyone gets sent the patch and a wyg file of the house rig as part of the advancing.. then the act can take in an extra floor package. I did Sam Smith at BW and we took in a lot more including a big flown piece which is rigged in the changeover. Headline act gets the overnight programming session the night before as a rule. Everyone else either pre-clones and programmes before arrival or they get their turn on the FOH wyg system a few hours before your set - you wait your turn... You then load your file in the changeover, check anythung you need to like posiitions and off you go... Mostly you clone off your existing showfile to the house rig and off you go. If no artiste ld turns up the festival op will run their show. Its not uncommon for an LD to have more than one act a festival..

[emountford15]

Most of them will run a merging system of somehow or another. A WYG/Capture file along with a plan will be presented before the show, and you either clone or replace your fixtures if your touring a Showfile. Most of your programming will be done before turning up. A lot of the mainstages will let you use their presets if you are using MA, It means you can just bring in all their position presets, or effects etc into your showfile. This is handy if you dont have a change over. If guests are using different brands of desk, Usually an artnet/sACN merge will happen. Theres a few ways to do this ; One being bringing everything into MA2 then the MA2 taking the highest value and outputs the highest value ; At such time for another desk to take over, the MA outputs all channels at 0 and the other desk merged in will take place. I have also known people using sACN priorities, and the highest number in the network will always output to the rig.

[DoctorStar]

Thank you for the extra replies.

 

GrandMA-2nd. It was your rainbow lighting look (on some sort of blade fixture?) at the end of one of Sam's songs (I love him??) that got me thinking about this. That clearly wasn't a "quick busked look" of an LD working on the fly.

 

Subtle and beautiful it was though.

 

DrS

[grandMA_the_2nd]

Thank you for the extra replies.

 

GrandMA-2nd. It was your rainbow lighting look (on some sort of blade fixture?) at the end of one of Sam's songs (I love him??) that got me thinking about this. That clearly wasn't a "quick busked look" of an LD working on the fly.

 

Subtle and beautiful it was though.

 

DrS

 

Yes Xbar 20's - we have the floor ones on the tour and our festival floor package for the PRIDE Rainbow moment and the festival had more Xbars in the house rig so a quick clone off on that song beefed it up for the festival.