Jeff Ravitz and Bandit light Electric Forest Festival
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Lighting designer Jeff Ravitz returned to design the lighting for the Sherwood Court Stage with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites.
In designing the stage where artists such as Lido, The Floozies, Tycho and Black Tiger Sex Machine would perform, Ravitz focused on updating the overall look while still maintaining the aspects of the design that made last year’s set up successful, foremost of which was ensuring the system was ‘all things to all bands’ (within reason and budget).
“We have four or five of the artists’ LDs coming in daily, all with the desire to be true to their touring show, and I attempt to give them the building blocks,” Ravitz explained. “I retained last year’s core overhead lighting positions that seemed to provide everyone with the angles and density of beamage that they liked, and I kept the mixture of fixture types so there would continue to be a variety of textures and effects.”
Due to Bandit’s extensive inventory of out-of-the-ordinary truss shapes, Ravitz was able to save on custom trussing and transform previously straight runs of truss into curved elements. “This not only added interest, but it was immediately seen as something cool looking and new as the crowd gathered during the daylight hours,” said Ravitz, adding, “If a system looks good in daylight and in the dark, that’s a win.”
In addition to multiple adder packages for artists, Bandit Lites supplied the stage with Martin MAC Viper Profiles, VL 3500 Spots, GLP Impression 90, Ayrton Magic R9, Chauvet Legend 230SR Beams, Clay Paky B-EYE K20, VL 3000 Spots, Showline Nitro 510C, Color Kinetics Color Blast TRX, Color Kinetics Color Blaze 72’s, Bandit’s exclusive GRNLite Battens, GRNLite Pars, GRNLite Moving Washes and two grandMa 2 full consoles for control.
“I was given a bit more freedom to upgrade some lights to more modern products that have really exciting effects’ capabilities,” Ravitz said. “We added Clay Paky Aleda B-EYE K20s, which gave the system some real spice, and the Ayrton Magic Ring R9 for some oversized punch.”
“It was so great to work with Jeff and Dave Mollner again this year,” said Bandit production manager Dizzy Gosnell. “Everyone had a base point to relate to from last year’s show so it made things so much easier on the planning front.
Even with a flight delay, Bandit’s team of Patrick Sieg, Scott Wesson, Chris Noll and Elizabeth Weller hit the ground running to accomplish the job, working with programmer David Mollner to make sure that each incoming band’s touring package was successfully integrated into the stage’s system. “They all handled the added tasks with professionalism and skill,” finished Ravitz. “When all the bands are happy, the Festival is happy.”
(Jim Evans)
