From its
very beginning, the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has
done a masterful job of blending different genres and eras into a single
sweeping immersive experience. How else to explain, a festival where artists as
diverse as Tony Bennett and Deadmau5 (not to mention David Bowie, The Rolling
Stones, Paul McCartney and Pharrell Williams) are equally at home on stage. The
same diversity has also characterised the festival‘s stage lighting. This was
very evident at Glastonbury 2016’s WOW! Stage and Circus Big Top, where
Fineline Lighting, complemented some traditional effects with a variety of
dynamic new looks from CHAUVET Professional’s Rogue R1-FX-B and Maverick MK2 Spot
fixtures.
Fineline
specified 16 Rogue R1 FX-B blade-style fixtures for the WOW! Stage, which was
located in Glastonbury’s Silver Hayes area and featured EDM and DJ artists. The
company used 10 Maverick MK2 Spots at The Circus Big Top, where concert music
gave way to stage performances by Pirates of the Carabina, Yvette Dusol, Eric
McGill, plus many other acts.
Altough
the two stages featured very different forms of entertainment, Fineline
Lighting was committed to giving each a fresh new look. “We have been working
at Glastonbury for many years; it’s the largest green field festival in the
world and has always been a very diverse festival in terms of both the acts and
audience, catering for all tastes from Theatre through to EDM” said Rob
Sangwell, Fineline Lighting Project Manager. “It’s important that we keep
our stages fresh in terms of the visuals; we need to fulfill the brief for each
show, which is obviously very different over at the WOW! stage when compared
with the Circus Big Top. It’s important to select the right kit for the right
job; it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all situation”
The Rogue
R1 FX-B fixtures on the WOW! Stage rig delivered the captivating excitement
that the Fineline Lighting team was seeking. LD James Harrington and
his team positioned the 16 Rogue fixtures in four equal rows that were fixed to
vertical downstage trusses. By doing this, they were able to achieve
completely new and refreshing looks by utilising the R1 FX-B’s infinite
rotation of both pan and tilt for its 5 individually controllable heads, each
powered by a pixel mappable 15 W RGBW LED.
“This was
the first time we incorporated the R1 FX-B into any of our projects– and what
an impression they created!” commented Sangwell. “The crowd were going absolutely
crazy for the music and visuals.“
While the
R1 FX-Bs offer incredible brightness and powerfully vivid colours, the
combination of 360° rotation and individual LEDs gave the Fineline team a
completely refreshing arsenal of looks to play with, much to the delight of the
thousands of clubbers at the stage.
“The individual pan and tilt of the R1
FX-Bs provided our lighting operators with an incredible energetic tool, ideal
for key moments within DJ sets to accentuate drops and climactic points,” said
Sangwell. “Among the favourite looks were the 180° crisscross panning effect,
and everyone loved the fact that these fixtures definitely pack a punch!”
Fineline
also specified eight CHAUVET Professional Rogue R2 Beams for the WOW! stage,
positioning them on overhead trusses at the front and rear of the stage in rows
of four.
“We’re a
great fan of the Rogue series, especially the R2 Beams,” added Sangwell. “With
the split beam, 8-facet rotating prism and great output, the R2 Beams are our
go-to moving heads for this type of show. For this particular event, they
provided that extra punch we needed for aerial and crowd directed beams.”
Weaving
concentrated beams of light in and out of lattice of colour thrown into the
audience by the R1 FX-B fixtures, the combination of the two Chauvet fixtures
was minimalist, intricate and intensifying, and certainly added to the euphoric
(not to mention muddy) authentic club experience had by the festivalgoers.
Meanwhile
at the 3,000 capacity Circus Big Top, the Fineline Lighting team was relying on
the new Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures to create a show atmosphere. “We
needed a decent spot fixture capable of subtle theatrical gobo work as well as
more dramatic effects. All shows in the Circus Big Top are rehearsed and
programmed in advance, so consistency of movement, positioning and indexing of
gobos is important,” said Sangwell. “The Maverick was good and bright, with a
great flat field and offered us a whole arsenal of colour and gobo effects plus
a fantastic zoom.”
One of
Sangwell’s considerations in specifying a suitable spot fixture was brightness.
Luckily, the Maverick didn’t disappoint.
Hung from
overhead truss, the Mavericks could be seen both casting glorious swathes of
light onto the performers on stage below and creating great aerial effects
above. LD James Loudon and head tech Jonnie Westall were both very pleased with
the results.
With
performers both on stage and performing aerial acrobatics, the Mavericks worked
in unison to provide both stunning and subtle looks for what is essentially a
very theatrical show. The gobo effects from above were particularly good,
and really drew emphasis onto the whole stage area.
While it
may have been the first time that Fineline incorporated the Maverick spot into
a lighting rig, their performance during the festival didn’t disappoint.
“This was
the first time we used the Maverick spots, and we were impressed by their
versatility,” continued Sangwell. “They certainly offer much more than we had
expected, and as such we’re already thinking about the possibilities this
fixture could bring for upcoming future projects.”
With the
WOW! And Circus Big Top stages, Fineline has well and truly mastered the art of
creating credible stand alone venues with formidable reputations of their own
within the larger macrocosm of the Glastonbury festival. Although at opposite
ends of the spectrum – both thematically and demographically – the WOW! and
Circus Big Top stages are united in the sense that both benefitted enormously
from their lighting designs, both of which served to maximise the experience
had by festivalgoers within the respective stages – a concept that has long
been at the heart of the Glastonbury philosophy.
