It was the first time that the Belfast and Dublin based company has serviced a major stage at the high profile MCD promoted festival, which featured a line up including (on the Vodafone Stage) The Swedish House Mafia, The Strokes, Deadmau5, Tinie Tempah, The National and Pendulum.
The PSI team of seven was led by Sean Pagel, who also created a production design to satisfy all acts appearing.
The StageCo stage/roof measured 20m wide by 16 deep and offered 14m headroom, below which PSI sub-hung three 'festival LX' trusses and an additional 'festival artist' truss, to accommodate the requests of those who were carrying specials and extras. They also flew a tab-track truss to mask changeovers and sets being built on the upstage half of the stage during the previous act, together with extra trusses for the Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5 and The Strokes' kit.
"The trick was designing something that was flexible and diverse enough to deal with everyone's needs - and a wide selection of musical styles and genres - and be able to easily accommodate artists with specials packages," explains Pagel, adding that specials packages are becoming increasingly common on the festival circuit not just for the headline acts but often for those lower down the bill.
Some of these packages were complex to rig. Friday was the most hectic day for this for the PSI crew, with both The Strokes and the Swedish House Mafia bringing in comprehensive rigs. The Strokes (LD Ed Warren) needed six chevrons flown accurately, along with scrims and a SoftLED backdrop. For the Swedish House Mafia (LD Ian Tomlinson), PSI installed a full cross stage truss downstage for their kabuki reveal and a 15m wide upstage truss to facilitate their LED screen.
The whole lighting project entailed the provision of 30 motors and points of rigging to deal with both the house system and everyone's extras.
Lighting fixtures on the upstage truss were eight Martin Professional MAC 700 Washes, eight MAC 700 Spots and eight Atomic strobes. The mid truss featured 12 Mac 700 Spots and eight Washes, together with seven Atomics and 10 2-cell Moles. The front/downstage truss had four Mac 700 Washes, six Robe ColorWash 250E ATs, eight Robe ColorSpot 700s and six 8-cell Moles for audience blinders.
The front lights were used for washing and general stage lighting, the back ones for beam-work, drama, prettiness and general eye-candy looks.
Running along the top of each PA wing were four linear 4-cell Moles and three Robe ColorSpot 1200E AT moving heads. The Robes were fitted with Rain Hats to protect them from the inclement weather.
The production lighting console was an Avolites D4 Vision, and all the headliners and some other bands brought their own and hooked in to the house rig.
(Jim Evans)
