In recognition of its efforts, the festival has won the Groenevent Award 2015 for greenest festival in Flanders and the Groene Pluim award of Ieper.
This year, lighting designer Alexander Coppenolle continued the festival's tradition of blending punchy hardcore looks with planet-friendly green thinking by specifying Chauvet Professional Mavericks and Rogues for its indoor and outdoor stages.
"When it comes to lighting the Ieper Hardcore Fest, we're faced with a pretty impossible task each year," commented Coppenolle, who has been the festival's lighting designer since 2012. "Of course, being the most prestigious hardcore festival in Europe, we want to create the best experience possible for the fans. At the same time, however, we need to be conscious about energy draw. The Chauvet fixtures allow us to tick all boxes without any compromises."
Coppenolle used six Maverick MK2 Spots on his rig for the festival's main stage, and six Spots on the indoor stage, positioning the fixtures on overhead truss. With five independently moving LEDs heads and 360° rotation, the Mavericks allowed him to create a seemingly endless variety of big looks from a relatively small number of fixtures, which enhanced the energy efficiency of his rig.
"The Mavericks were instrumental in enabling me to create big festival looks with huge stage presence," commented Coppenolle. "While we have all the benefits of the LED light source such as low power consumption, the output is ridiculously good -- certainly more powerful than most non LED fixtures I've worked with in the last couple of years."
Given that many bands on the outdoor stage were playing during daylight hours, it was imperative that the spot fixture of choice be bright enough to contend with the Belgium summer sun. "The Maverick Spots were so bright, we didn't have any issue with the daylight interfering with the atmosphere at the festival," continued Coppenolle. "The Mavericks simply shone through; such is the brightness of the fixture."
The Rogue R2 Wash fixtures were specified by Coppenolle in order to award the indoor stage with lush wash lighting to provide atmosphere to the whole experience, all the while not detracting from the main performances.
"The festival is growing year on year, and I'm so happy to have been able to shape its growth," concluded Coppenolle, who also praised the contribution of technical and power supervisor, Dries Degryse for his work at the festival. "With the complete lighting rig from CHAUVET Professional, not only are our green credentials more than supported, we've managed to create incredibly powerful looks. Who said we needed to compromise?"
(Jim Evans)
