Italy - In the summer of 2024, Italian musicians Francesco Renga and Filippo Neviani, known as Nek, embarked on a tour that celebrated the best of their extensive discographies. This highly anticipated tour, aptly named Renganek Live 2024, blended Renga’s soulful rock with Nek’s dynamic pop-rock, offering audiences a musical experience grounded in a shared rock matrix.
Designed with flexibility and sustainability in mind, the tour utilises a semi-production setup that integrates essential aspects of a full-scale production with a more efficient and simplified approach. This combination ensures smooth execution across numerous tour dates, while also providing the adaptability to address the unique challenges and opportunities of each venue.
At the heart of the tour’s lighting setup is a sophisticated control system managed by renowned lighting designer Pietro Bardelli. Bardelli has employed two Full Boar 4 consoles from ETC’s Hog 4 family – one primary and one backup – to ensure flexibility, speed, and reliability throughout the tour. This decision was driven by the need to adapt quickly to varying materials and conditions at each venue while maintaining high standards of visual consistency.
Bardelli, who has a long-standing reputation for excellence in live event production, explains: “This is a rock and roll tour, and with the semi-production setup, I encounter different fixtures at each stop. It was crucial to use a control setup that provides the flexibility, speed, and reliability required for this kind of tour. The ETC Full Boar 4 consoles, along with two DP8000 units for expanded DMX universes, offer significant advantages in terms of programming logic and console power.”
The lighting design for the tour places a strong emphasis on clean and precise programming, particularly given the absence of an LED wall. The visuals rely heavily on the lighting design to create an impactful experience. Bardelli notes: “Practically at every date, I have to replace the fixtures while maintaining the same effects. The palettes must be transported faithfully, and even with different lighting fixtures, the result closely matches my vision. Typically, within a couple of hours, I can set up new fixtures, adjust the patch, and recall palettes and colours efficiently.”
The tour's concert experience is further enhanced by the integration of Time Code for most pieces, with Bardelli also retaining the flexibility to manually mix certain segments during performances. The dynamic interplay between Renga and Nek, highlighted by a rock medley where Nek showcases his bass skills, adds to the tour's excitement.
