It was the second time that Boston-based Preston, also LD for headlining jam band moe. had worked at the four day event. The lighting equipment was supplied by Chicago-based Performance Lighting, a recent investor in BMFLs and Pointes.
A major challenge for the Moonshine Stage lighting design was that any equipment - trussing, set, lighting, etc. - had to be rigged off two roof beams with limited weight loading that were part of the semi-permanent stage's structure. Similar to the concept of the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, this encapsulates the spirit of the Festival, and has been utilized by the site for many years.
Preston designed a trussing infrastructure that formed two large V shapes - each 50ft long - with stretched Lycra 'sails' in between to make excellent video projection surfaces and adding a lightweight but eye-catching set element to the space, which also matched the ceiling décor of stretched reflective material.
"I wanted to ensure the lighting didn't become lost amongst the video and projections," explained Preston, "and the BMFLs and Pointes have plenty of punch so they were ideal."
The BMFLs were really maximized, especially for those awesome big aerial effects blasting through the night sky which he really loved. He also employed plenty of tight BMFL beams and graphics slicing through the haze, which looked "amazing," and both the BMFLs and Pointes enabled spectacular projection and texturing on the sails using their gobos and animation wheels. "The idea was simple, different and memorable," he stated.
Preston used grandMA control for lighting at Summer Camp, and his personal crew chief from Performance Lighting was Autumn Venevia.
(Jim Evans)
