Lighting designer Martin Beekhuizen used no less than 16 RJ Aramis 2500W followspots on Amsterdam's biggest party night of the year as huge audiences flooded into the Amsterdam Arena for the 11th Toppers in Concert extravaganza.
Billed as 'the singalong festival of the year', the annual event filled the massive arena - home of Amsterdam's Ajax football team - for five nights at the end of May 2015. Audiences of over 70,000 people per night - dressed in white with 'a colourful touch of summer' - sang along with Dutch superstars, Gerard Joling, Jeroen van der Boom and Rene Froger, and special guest stars Danny de Munk, Edzillia Rombley, Andre and Roxanne Hazes, David Bisbal and Village People, at this bright, bold and colourful Crazy Summer Edition. Clearly followspots as bold and bright were required to highlight the stars.
"The show is performed in the round and the followspot positions are located at a distance of 80m from the stage," explains Beekhuizen. "I needed something with the muscle-power to handle those super-long throw distances, power through a very bright lighting rig and cope with the fact that the first half of the show was in daylight hours. It was also important to have 16 uniform followspots of the same model, output and quality - which is no small requirement!"
Ampco Flashlight provided Beekhuizen with the 16 RJ Aramis units and an experienced team of operators, which he was very happy about having worked with both the RJ Aramis and the spot team before.
Meanwhile, in the Philips Stadium in Eindhoven, eight Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HTI followspots were used by lighting designer Marco Driessen to illuminate Guus Meeuwis' anniversary show Groots met een zachte G. The fast moving, energetic show celebrated 10 consecutive years at the stadium for the Dutch star and has been dubbed the biggest annual music event by a solo artist in the Netherlands.
Over five nights in June, 175,000 visitors and 1,300,000 viewers saw the Lancelot followspots in action.
"For the Jubilee edition of Groots met een zachte G I again deliberately chose the Robert Juliat Lancelot followspots," says Marco Driessen of The Art of Light. "This year for the first time in history we were broadcast live on Dutch television, and the Lancelots once more gave the decisive output, colour temperature and reliability for which I had chosen them."
All Robert Juliat Lancelot and Aramis units were supplied by Dutch rental company, Ampco Flashlight.
(Jim Evans)
