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By admin, on August 3rd, 2010%
 16 bands in 14 hours made for a busy day on Saturday. Sugarhill festival is a one-day event held on a farm near Swindon, with an emphasis on local music talent, and local beers.
There’s a bit of a real-ale theme to the event, with an impressive array of beers and ciders on tap.
I was kept busy prepping and rigging the main stage, and then pushed a whole host of acts on and off stage during the day. Highlights for me were metallers Reign of Fury (especially the tiger-skin drumkit), and a stunning human-beatbox threepiece, Duke.
By admin, on July 25th, 2010%
Wychwood is a live music festival held on Cheltenham racecourse in June every year. It’s been running for 6 years now and is regularly nominated as ‘Best family-friendly festival’.
My client was the event management company running the whole festival site. They required a technical manager to oversee, design and operate all the on-site stage lighting. This consisted of a 15m main stage, a 42m big-top and several smaller stages, including the BBC Introducing stage.
The client had access to some lighting equipment which they were keen to use to keep costs down, but additional equipment would also be needed to produce a show of the required quality.
During the planning stages I worked with the client to get a feel for the style of lighting each venue would require, and we drew up provisional equipment lists based on previous events. This was then modified to get maximum lighting impact for the lowest costs possible. I then helped get the best possible dry-hire rates for the equipment we needed to bring in.
 In order to help illustrate the proposed lighting design, 3D models of the stage and rig were drawn up – this helped with stage layout and draping plans
For the show itself I put together a team of 5 engineers who designed, prepped, operated and de-rigged all the lighting required. A lot of the gear we used had not been tested recently, so we spent a couple of days testing and prepping in the warehouse before trucking onto site.
The 3-day show went very well, with great reactions from both the client and the public. We worked a shift-rotation pattern to keep staff fresh during the festival. At the end of the final day we started the de-rig at 11pm and were clear of the site by 5am.
After the gig, the feedback from the client was excellent:
 “Just a quick note from me to say thanks for a great job at Wychwood & all your (very!!) hard work, please pass on to your respective crews, I for one was very pleased with the light show on both venues.
Also, you might be pleased to know that (name deleted for commercial purposes) was at Wychwood, he was so impressed with main stage lighting & the lighting and sound in the big top that he contacted the Wychwood board of directors to find out who had supplied them – with the end result that he rang us and wants to discuss us being involved with a major festival next year!”
By admin, on July 13th, 2010%
Breakout is an weekend event organised by the Methodist group MAYC for children and youth to encourgae participation in the church.
I spent a weekend in a big top tent rigging, programming and operating lighting for a variety of hip hop, urban and indy music acts interspersed with workshop sessions and stand-up comedy.
Lighting was a combination of Martin MAC 700 heads, LED uplighting and generic cans on Avolites dimmers, all controlled by a Pearl 2008.
I didn’t get any pictures, as my hands were busy pressing the buttons, but hope to share some from my collegues soon.
By admin, on July 7th, 2010%
Welsh opera star Katherine Jenkins (along with the National Symphony Orchestra) recently hosted a charity concert at Cheltenham race course for the benefit of Linc, the cancer charity.
 I was asked to design, rig, operate and derig lighting for the show, which was to be held on a 16m SuperNova stage supplied by Serious Stages.
Along with my collegue Al McGibbon, we prepped the gear, rigged three trusses of lighting and provided a show to suit the event. As this was a classical event, it consisted mainly of fixed lighting. As no haze was allowed on stage we rigged a white backdrop on which to project patterns and gobos from MAC 500s and Robe 700 moving heads.
 I must say a big thank-you to the crew from Event Staff who helped with shifting the gear from van to stage roof and back again.
By admin, on June 23rd, 2010%
The Centaur is a multi-purpose hall at Cheltenham racecourse. Used as a betting hall on race days, it caters for everything else while the horses are away.
 Homeform are the company behind Möben kitchens, Sharps bedrooms and Dolphin bathrooms. Their summer sales conference is a chance to show their new range to the sales staff, along with some inspiring words from their celebrity front man, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
I was kept busy for a couple of days driving the Centaur cherry-picker and running the lighting for the conference, which included rigging in the large truss grid in the roof of the building and programming and running the show from a Jands lighting desk.
By admin, on June 18th, 2010%
 TOAST is a festival run on Clapham common every September with an antipodean theme. It’s been running for 10 years now, and to celebrate they had a Kiwi-themed reunion on their original festival site, Ham Polo Club in Richmond.
I was on site as part of a team of six providing lighting and sound on the main stage. The day-long event included an England-NZ polo match and then concert by NZ band The Feelers.
The Ex-Pat NZ community in London appear to like a glass of white, a couple of beers and some rock music in the sun!
By admin, on June 8th, 2010%
Just returned from providing equipment and staff to help light the recent Wychwood festival at Cheltenham racecourse.
 I put together a team of five engineers and riggers to provide lighting on the main stage, in the Big Top dance venue and in a couple of smaller marquees around the site.
Included in the challenge was lighting a 11pm-3am headphone disco – you never tire of seeing 1700 dancers singing Belinda Carlise in an otherwise slient tent…
For more details of this event, read the case study.
By Nick, on May 13th, 2010%
I’ve been asked to light some festivals this summer and am in the middle of preparing lighting rigs and flying plans.
 3D visualisation of a 15m orbit stage To help illustrate the concepts to the client I’ve been creating 3D models of the stages and rigs involved. This has really helped to plan out the motor rigging point, lighting angles and cabling requirements.
There’s the added benefit that it’s much easier to illustrate to the client what the final rig will look like. Anyone who’s looked at traditional theatre lighting plots will know that they’re not the most user-friendly bits of paper produced.
By admin, on April 2nd, 2010%
Yesterday was on a quick rigging job: flying a truss in Cheltenham Town Hall for a one-night Joan Armatrading gig.
 Rigging for Joan Armatrading, Cheltenham Town Hall This was my first time rigging in this venue – which has 20-something metre high roof. Fortunately there’s walkways inside the roof space, so rigging up the motors is pretty simple – although you need long steels to get the safety bonds on!
The truss was only flown at around half height for the show – any higher and we’d be lighting haircuts rather than faces!
By Nick, on March 22nd, 2010%
Been living on the M4 this week, with a school arts review in Cardiff, followed by a conference in London.
First up, some microphones and CD playback for a primary school arts review in The Gate, Cardiff. Lots of 4-11 year olds singing song from Oliver – in fact, some of the stuff that got me into this business in the first place!
 Acevo Conference, Millbank, London (photo courtesy Peak Hire) This was rapidly followed by lighting a conference for ACEVO. This was in the Media Centre at Millbank Westminister. The venue has been recently refitted and we had to spend a bit of time working out where all the new cables started and finished.
Lighting was a combination of StudioDue LED fixtures and Source 4 profiles, all colour mixed and balanced on an Avolite Pearl.
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16 bands in 14 hours made for a busy day on Saturday. Sugarhill festival is a one-day event held on a farm near Swindon, with an emphasis on local music talent, and local beers.
