Germany - Straßenparty-Geldern is a three-day summer festival in the heart of Geldern, in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region. This free, open-air event includes live concerts from a rich range of musical genres across a total of five festival stages. For the 2024 edition of the festival, two of the largest stages featured line array PA systems from Wharfedale Pro.
Sound specialists, Rockline, deployed the sound system for the main stage, whilst the second stage was handled by event technicians, Ambiento. Wharfedale Pro was chosen for both stages to ensure consistency for the event’s most anticipated performances. On hand was Wharfedale Pro’s local applications and solutions manager from IAD GmbH, Christian Boche.
“There were a lot of different bands in the mix with very short change-over times between acts, so I was on hand to ensure the event and the Wharfedale Pro gear ran smoothly,” recalls Boche. “From rock and tribute bands to DJ sets, choirs and dance groups, the variety of different genres was impressive, and gave the WLA-1 system a real chance to shine.”
Not only did the event require a versatile performance system, but it also needed a solution that would be cost-effective and easy to deploy. Wharfedale Pro’s WLA-1 and WLA-210XP systems were chosen for their flexible rigging options, value and Ease Focus compatibility, allowing for upfront acoustic simulation, critical for an inner-city festival with multiple stages.
On the main stage, the PA system consisted of six WLA-112 flown per side, with an additional WLA-112 as in-fill on both the left and right. Four WLA-21BX subwoofers were stacked on the left and right, plus three WLA-121 subwoofers as a centre cluster, were stacked at the base of the stage. In this configuration, the system provided complete coverage for an audience of up to 2000 attendees.
A smaller system was required on the second stage, named Bühne Schwarzbrenner, with a total of four ground-stacked WLA-210XP loudspeakers on each side, driven by Wharfedale Pro’s own DP-N amplifiers.
Timelines for the event set-up were tight, with just three hours in total for complete audio gear implementation on the main stage, including a soundcheck for the first performers. “With only three technicians on site, getting the gear rigged and ready was a challenge,” reflects Boche. “The Rockline-VT team made use of Ease Focus using WLA-GLL files to do the acoustic simulation, which helped to streamline the process. The simulation was spot on.”
Both the main stage and smaller Bühne Schwarzbrenner performed perfectly for all three days of the festival. “Besides the pristine sound, both systems received praise from band technicians, including those who were not previously familiar with Wharfedale Pro,” continues Boche. “After mixing and working on these systems they were convinced with the quality and performance of the WLA range.”
