Glastonbury 2019 Highlights

GLASTONBURY 2019 HIGHLIGHTS

Following its fallow year, the world’s largest greenfield festival was back with a vengeance. Hitting the site for the first time, TPi’s Stew and Jacob loaded up the car and headed down to Worthy Farm to meet some of the industry’s finest, battling the heat to put on a show for more than 200,000 festival goers…

I’m usually a bit of a last-minute packer when it comes to festivals and work trips. But as Jacob and I were setting out on our first ever Glastonbury weekend, I thought preparation was going to be key. However, as I was setting up our tent in over 30° heat, my over provisions of wellies, several coats and hand warmers suddenly seemed fairly redundant.

For those on-site, or at home viewing the BBC coverage, this year’s Glastonbury was indeed a scorcher in many ways, with endless highlights and standout performances that are still being talked about months after the event. As is the annual tradition, the UK’s biggest festival saw some of the industry’s best-known suppliers, manufacturers and crew members come together for one almighty gathering. With water bottle in hand, we ventured out to visit the various stages, tents and cranes – yes you read that correctly – to meet some of the teams that collectively create one of the most talked-about cultural experiences of the year.

PYRAMID

Where better to start our Glastonbury journey than the iconic Pyramid Stage. This year hosting headline performances from The Killers, The Cure and Stormzy, with many of the biggest names in the world of live touring making a home at FOH and on the stage. Once again, the technical infrastructure of the stage was overseen by Neg Earth, Creative Technology and RG Jones.

To kick-off the conversation about the main stage, it seemed only natural to speak to the team responsible for one of the most talked about performances of the year – Stormzy’s Friday night headline set. Fresh from his success with the Spice Girls, Lighting Designer, Tim Routledge was one of the main creatives alongside Creative Directors, Amber Rimmel and Bronski from Tawbox behind the grime star’s set. Routledge has been involved with the artist since his 2018 Wireless Festival headline performance. “We got the green light in the Autumn and started in earnest in February with Production Manager, Joel Stanley and Misty Buckley completing the team.” The main goal for this collection of creatives was, in the words of Routledge, to bring “South London to the farm,” and going by the mainstream reports, it seems they succeeded.

The build for the show was certainly a logistical challenge, and Routledge was quick to complement the work of Crew Chief, Keith Duncan. “All the fixtures we brought in were from Neg Earth – as is Duncan – which made the process slightly easier as they were the house supplier for the rig. We were certainly pushing the capabilities of what the Pyramid Stage could handle in terms of weight loads and the time available.”

The LD explained that to fit the impressive structure required a twostage build process that involved hanging the top-tier balcony while loading in the lower tier and band structure, before joining it all together. All of which couldn’t be completed until the festival’s back lighting truss and half the house screen had been removed. “It was pushing the limits of what could be created during a 45-minute turnaround, but Duncan was the man for the job as we have done many major turnarounds together.”

Supplementing Stormzy’s rig were 116 GLP JDC1s, 47 impressions X4 20s, eight impression X4 Bar 10s, 15 Robert Juliat Dalis 862, 20 Robe BMFL Blades, 12 SGM P-10s, 16 Chroma-Q Color Force II 12, four Color Force II 48s, 20 Claypaky Aleda K25 HY B-EYEs and 23 Chauvet Professional COLORado Solo Battens.

For spots, Routledge utilised three rear Robe BMFL Spots, working in conjunction with the in-house Follow-Me remote spots system and front Robert Juliat spots. The LD spent the show calling spots and balancing the lights for television, with the main show being operated by Programmer, James Scott via an MA Lighting grandMA2.

Adding to the visual onslaught was Quantum Special Effects, who provided two of its own FL Flames. The fixture, which had been designed for Stormzy’s Wireless headline show back in 2018, was used to create an iconic ‘wow moment’ to open his set – a selection of 100ft pyro shooting from 10 stage positions and four display positions on scissor lifts out the back behind the IMAG screens. Video Design also provided additional LED required for Stormzy’s set.

On the subject of Video, TPi managed to grab a word with Creative Technology’s Will Harkin, the night after Stormzy’s set, to speak about the video demands for the Pyramid Stage. “It was certainly a challenge,” he laughed, recalling the process from the night before, which involved taking apart half of the upstage screen to get the stage in.

Although CT has been involved with Glastonbury for a number of years, this was the first time the company provided a complete video package, including LED screens, camera package and a backend control system. The IMAG screens chosen for this year were ROE Visuals CB5s with a Barco E2 processor handling the switching of sources.

Harkin himself actually has a familial connection to Glastonbury, with his father, Bill Harkin, designing the first Glastonbury pyramid stage in 1971. “My main goal was to create a system that you could shoot holes in and it will still run,” he started, while describing the sheer level of redundancies in place for the video package. “The other goal was to give productions as many options as possible. We’ve developed a system where you can plug-in

at various points around the mainstage including FOH and the ever-popular stage right. The demands from touring artists get greater each year, with more acts using their own camera setup or wishing to take camera feeds for their media servers. It’s all about having a system that is flexible to deal with the demands.”

One such company that made use of the CT’s visual setup, was Really Creative Media (RCM). Directors Nick Dew and Jack James were on site to support the bands’ production teams at the Pyramid, John Peel, and The Other Stage.

Having supplied Bastille with projection equipment on the road, RCM recently started designing new live content updates for the band’s summer tour dates, including new material specifically for the all-important festival slot on the Pyramid stage. The company also created a series of animations revolving around the album artwork for Vampire Weekend’s set on the Pyramid Stage, which centred around a giant globe suspended in the centre of stage.

Another familiar name on the main stage and providing the audio backbone for the Pyramid was RG Jones. The PA system deployed was impressive in every respect – designed to maximise SPL levels and even coverage for the 150,000-strong audience while respecting offsite limits.

A total of 72 MLA comprised the four main hangs with a further four MLA Compact arrays for infill flown from the proscenium arch. Eight delay positions in an inner and out ring consisted of MLA and MLA Compact arrays to optimise coverage across the expansive field. A massive broadside cardioid array of 38 MLX subwoofers stretched across the entire width of the stage to provide sub-bass support and control to the entire system.

Despite the glorious sunshine, the site is always susceptible to windy conditions and this year was no different, with the wind changing from all points of the compass. But again, this was something the PA system was able to confine with ease.

As is the annual tradition, the Pyramid’s FOH hosted a revolving door of some of the industry’s most respected engineers to each take the reins of the MLA system. On site to cover a selection of engineers was the DiGiCo team to oversee a range of its consoles supplied by RG Jones including SD12s, SD10s and an SD7 Quantum. All desks were spec’d by Project Manager Ben Milton.

Lighting Operator, James Scott & Lighting Designer, Tim Routledge; Really Creative Media’s Nick Dew & Jack James; Creative Technology’s Will Harkin; RG Jones Project Manager, Ben Milton; CT’s Alana Coyne and Graham Miller.

Another brand also getting its place FOH was Soundcraft, with the Vi Series being used by FOH Sound Engineer Raphael Williams for Stormzy’s headline set. To mix the show, Williams used a pair of Vi2000s at FOH connected together in Mirror Mode, provided by his own company Bethel Productions. In addition to the two consoles, he also carried two Soundcraft Realtime Racks, augmenting the consoles’ world-class onboard processing with the full suite of UAD-2 Plug-Ins.

“The Vi2000 is easy to use,” commented Williams. “As a generic sound engineer you can walk straight up to it. The functionality is great, as are the preamps, and sonically you don’t argue with it.”

Martin Audio’s unique MLA technology enabled fine control of how each array covered its designated audience area. Acoustic cells housed within each cabinet were independently controlled by their own amplifier and DSP channel – a total of six in each MLA.

This control allowed RG Jones to specify exactly what SPL and frequency response was required across the audience, with the intelligent software automatically controlling the array to produce that result. As Milton commented: “This amounted to just a 3dB drop off over the 200m-long audience area, with incredibly even frequency response.”

The results overall were stunning, and for headliners The Killers, in particular, it was a resounding triumph. The Killers FOH Engineer, Kenny Kaiser had nothing but praise.

“I’ve been touring with MLA for the past five years, but I’ve not had much experience with it outdoors and I was a little scared,” he began. “But this system was phenomenal, everything was there, and MLA still has a very long lifespan in my opinion.” For The Killers, it was a resounding triumph, putting to rest their previous headline set in 2007 that was marred by sound problems and ultimately led to RG Jones and Martin Audio being installed as the audio providers for the Pyramid stage ever since.

Providing stage infrastructure for the Pyramid was Serious Stages. With a history spanning over 35 years, this year Serious brought the Pyramid’s iconic steel frame to life once again, providing all of the stage decking and loading bays, broadcast camera runs, VIP viewing platforms – all flanked by giant PA and screen steel truss goalposts. In front of the stage were broadcast camera platforms, eight PA delay towers, two front of house structures, two spot pods, and an assisted viewing platform (AVP).

The Next Stage were pleased to work closely with Stephen Reeve of Pull the Pin Out and Show Designer Rob Sinclair to manufacture and supply the stage set for the Kylie Minogue’s long-awaited Glastonbury performance as part of the legends slot on the Pyramid Stage.

Called on for the first time to provide crew for the Pyramid Stage was Showforce. The company was awarded the contract by the stage’s Production Manager, Emma Reynolds, who has worked with the Showforce team on several events in recent years. Showforce’s in-house operations team made certain that they had the correct personnel in place at every stage of the project and everything was planned to a tee, from allocating crew to appropriate roles based on their expertise, to ensuring they were correctly accredited prior to arriving onsite. Showforce’s Operations Manager, Laurence Jones, was on site for the duration of the project, liaising with the client and crew chief, managing the crew and generally making certain that everything ran smoothly.

Onsite from 24 June, Showforce’s initial presence included two teams of crew, each headed up by a highly experienced crew chief and assisted by forklift drivers to support the install of lighting, sound and video equipment for the Pyramid Stage. Prior to the opening day, an additional 18-person Showforce crew, chief and forklift driver ensured that the stage was prepared for headliner Stormzy’s performance on Friday.

Serious Stages Senior Project Manager, Simon Fursman; Avolites’ Koy Neminathan & Francesca Parry; The Transition Video team; Universal Pixel’s Roly Oliver.

A team of more than 30 crew, three forklift drivers and a crew chief worked through the night on Friday and Saturday, removing all the previous headliner’s kit and preparing the stage for the next day’s performances, including Saturday and Sunday’s headline acts: The Killers and The Cure.

Given the number of acts performing and the tight turnaround time between each, the backstage area was heavily congested with kit. At any one time there was an act leaving the stage, a new act going on and the following artist loading in.

It was vital that every performance began on time as there were financial implications if they didn’t. The average time allowed for a changeover is eight minutes with no margin for error; this was the case following Kylie Minogue’s performance – there was a lot of kit involved and it needed to be changed over quickly for Sir David Attenborough’s appearance. The Showforce crew was able to turn it around in an impressive six minutes.

Showforce also provided eight follow spot operators for each of the show days; four were situated at FOH and 18m high, and the other four operated from under the stage.

THE OTHER

A short walk around the corner, Glastonbury’s second stage offered an intriguing line-up throughout the weekend with headliners Tame Impala,

Chemical Brothers and Christine and the Queens all transforming the stage into their own unique worlds. Not only that, but The Other Stage was home to one of the most viral moments of the festival when Dave gave one unexpecting bucket hat-wearing reveller – now known to the world simply as Alex – a chance to perform with him on stage, a production also designed by Routledge and Tawbox.

Providing rear and IMAG house screens was Transition Video. Speaking about the experience, company Director Rhodri Shaw said: “Video technology has come a long way, even in the past two years. With this in mind, we suggested to the festival that we should upgrade the screens on the Other Stage to ROE CB5s – matching the product on the main stage. It’s almost double the resolution and you can really tell the difference.” Transition also provided Barco e2 to deal with incoming touring artists.

Providing the camera package and its own OB truck was Video Europe. The company supplied two of its highest-spec, state-of-the-art, outside broadcast trucks for the festival along with seven Sony HDC-4300 cameras and 18 crew trucks. The OB5 and OB7 were the workhorses behind Glastonbury’s most visited stages, the Pyramid Stage and Other Stage.

“Thanks really have to go to Laurence Delany, who created the team of suppliers and crew for this one,” commented Shaw. “He’s brought in a great group of people, many of whom have done several stints at Glastonbury.”

On the Saturday night, The Other stage underwent quite the transformation, as The Chemical Brothers landed to bring their visually stimulated and content-heavy show. This presented an interesting challenge for the stage crew, who removed the house screen and replaced it with the group’s own touring set up – which came courtesy of Universal Pixels. The company deployed the biggest LED screen at this year’s festival. The 2019 TPi Awards Favourite Video Rental Company supplied a 19m x 11m Leyard CLM10 screen, which was more than a third larger than The Chemical Brothers’ usual touring video screen. This increased the resolution, had 44% transparency and, crucially, weighed under three tonnes, which was essential for The Other Stage’s weight-loading limits.

Universal Pixels also continued its support of Years & Years at the festival and provided a server package for Vampire Weekend – both bands played the Pyramid Stage on the final day.

Audio duties for The Other Stage were overseen by Skan PA. This year, the company’s design consisted of 20 d&b audiotechnik KSL 8/12s, 18 KSL side hangs, 20 SL subs in an end on sub array, V8 centre hangs and J12 front fills between the main and side arrays. Using array processing and careful temperature and humidity monitoring, Skan was able to provide consistency across the audience area.

Along with stage and control, Skan put multicores of every flavour into the ground tunnels so that all artists could simply turn up and plug in. This comprised eight multicores, two dual HMA, three dual OpticalCon Duo, Quad Ethercon, eight-way BNC and a dedicated headline multi. Each multi had its own power and tielines. FOH control was all matrixed by a DiGiCo SD11i with mini racks on stage and at FOH. This also took care of shouts, VIP and transmits for sign language signers.

THE PARK

Tucked away in the south west of the festival site was the Park stage. Famed each year for being the site of many secret sets throughout the weekend, this year was no different, with performances from Vampire Weekend and Foals. Having been involved with the festival since 1995, Bristol based SWG Events took up residence at the Park Stage for et another year, providing an audio, lighting and video package for the three days.

“In 2007 Emily Eavis began a new project to develop The Park as a whole area of the festival,” recalled SWG’s Operations Manager, Mark Bott. “We were invited to supply audio and lighting solutions and quickly developed into supplying solutions for other venues in The Park, including The Rabbit Hole, Stonebridge Bar, HMS Sweet Charity and the Land’s End Bar.”

Bott continued to outline the challenge of overseeing the site year on year, especially with the much-anticipated secret sets. “Each year, we welcome surprise acts at The Park who are used to performing on much larger stages. Our challenge is to accommodate both the incoming production and incoming audience sizes.”

The audio offering that SWG now provides for The Park stage has certainly evolved from the original analogue package to a full digital console set up and Martin Audio line array system. “This year we upgraded to a DiGiCo SD10 mixing console on monitors,” stated Bott.

Meanwhile FOH control and matrixing was covered by Lab Gruppen LM44 Lake processors and the house console was an Avid Profile. “With the audio system, it’s really important that engineers feel they have the level of control over the PA so they get the best sound possible for their artist,” said Bott. “The Avid Venue Profile is still a good festival choice as every visiting engineer has a file or knows the console. We also have a large number of visiting consoles at The Park, so we add various types of cable systems and connectivity choices to cover these.”

This year, SWG’s set up consisted of two 12-box hangs of Martin Audio W8LC, 16 WS218X subs, four W8LCDs and a combination of fills.

When it came to lighting, Bott explained that the goal was to provide visiting artists and lighting engineers with “plenty of options to enhance their performance”. By selecting a range of fixtures from Robe, SWG was able to satisfy the majority of the artist riders.

The main rig comprised 24 Robe Spiiders, eight SuperSpikies, Robe MegaPointes and Robe LED Beam 150s. Also on the rider were eight Martin by Harman Atomic 3000s, 12 SGM P-5s and myriad pars and blinders. “We did provide some additional units as floor packages specific to individual acts across the weekend,” commented Bott.

The FOH console provided was a ChamSys MQ500 and a ChamSys Stadium Wing. “For lighting, we installed a fibre optic Art-net network this year, linked to a rack of ChamSys R4s. This enabled us to integrate guest consoles quickly and easily into the control network and switch seamlessly between these and the house console throughout the day.”

WEST HOLTS

A stone’s throw from the central Green Peace area, West Holts enjoyed a selection of stellar performances from the likes of Lizzo, Janelle Monae, Jorja Smith, Wu-Tang Clan and Jeff Goldblum.

This year, RG Jones supplied West Holts with 14 MLA per side, an out hang on house left of six MLA compact and a house right outfill of eight MLA Compact, which helped to extend coverage out to the Pathway to extend arena space. Twenty-one MLX subwoofers deployed in a cardioid pattern kept noise on stage to a minimum but delivered chest-pumping energy to the audience.

Two hangs of 16 MLA Compact delays were positioned 95m from the stage and extended coverage for another 75m before tapering off sharply using Martin Audio’s unique Hard Avoid feature to prevent sound spilling into market stalls. As System Tech, Jack Bowcher, commented: “This was a massive improvement from two years ago, with better quality audio through the field and better containment as well.

This audio quality was further endorsed by Andrew Lorenzo, FOH Engineer for Hollie Cook. “MLA sounded really crisp to me; I didn’t do anything to the graphic, it has been really well tuned by RG Jones on site and I found it really full in both the bottom and high top end, which is what I need for reggae. But it wasn’t harsh, which is the other thing I noticed and really liked. A thumbs-up from me.”

To ensure an unrestricted view for all, Creative Technology installed a 7.5m x 5m Upstage screen and two 6m x 3.5m IMAGs, both using INFiLED 5.9mm as well as providing screen switching for video relay, sub-cutting cameras from the BBC.

On site at the West Holts stage, BroadWeigh’s Sales Executive, Elliot Van Leare, spoke of the use of the company’s Bluetooth-enabled shackles. Van Leare wore multiple hats during the weekend as both a Sales Executive and a sound engineer. “This year I arrived a few days before the festival to set up and fly the loudspeaker system at West Holts, then worked on stage in patch and monitor world.”

All weight monitoring was done from the BroadWeigh App using an Apple iPhone XR. With windspeeds creeping up on one of the days, Van Leare could see how the weight fluctuated with any sudden gust. “This would be rather surprising and would sometimes show an addition of over 100kg to the standard weight,” he stated. “We were flying at under half the capacity weigh load, but it just goes to show how important it is to monitor if you’re flying equipment close to its maximum weight load.”

With the system in place Van Leare was able to capture all data required from the FOH position on the app considering the delay towers were more than 25m away.

“Take into consideration the 30-plus thousand people that made up the crowd along with its Bluetooth enabled devices, and it’s a great result. This was more than what was required as monitoring delay towers.”

Photos: TPi, Timmsy, SWG Events & Plaster www.negearth.com www.ct-group.com www.rgjones.co.uk www.q-sfx.com www.video-design.co.uk www.stages.co.uk www.swgevents.co.uk www.thenextstage-uk.com www.pullthepinout.co.uk www.showforce.com www.tawbox.com www.timroutledge.co.uk www.broadweigh.com www.unipix.tv www.reallycreativemedia.co.uk

ARCADIA: PANGEA

The Arcadia team has come a long way since the day when a group of plucky young Bristolians knocked on the door of Michael Eavis with an offer to host a rave like no other at Glastonbury. Since its first year in 2009, Arcadia has become a staple within the Glastonbury line-up and evolved year on year, reaching a milestone in 2017 with the Metamorphosis show.

With the Spider now becoming a certified touring production, crawling all over the world, the Arcadia team thought it was time to start with a fresh slate and build a new experience that would be unique for Glastonbury. The end result was Pangea, a whole new concept centred around an old Bristolian dock crane. With the dust settled on 2019’s festival, TPi got to sit down with some of the creatives to speak about the origins of this year’s events and the technical backbone that made it all possible.

“We always knew we wanted to call the installation Pangea, [the name of the supercontinent that existed prior to the current configuration of continents we know today],” began Bertie Cole, Co-Founder and Technical Director for Arcadia. “It was all about going back to the beginning. The spider was born in Glastonbury and we wanted to start a process again.”

But starting from square one, scale was always something in the back of the team’s mind. “We had got to the point where we needed something much bigger,” stated Co-Founder and Creative Director Pip Rush.

“In our area we could have up to 50,000 people come through, with many of them staying for a few hours. It meant that even the spider was getting dwarfed in the space. I think one of our strongest points is that we take over the sky, so from the start we had the idea of building a structure that would accomplish this feat.”

The structure in question was an imposing crane that was transported from the Bristol docklands. “We looked at a few potential structures for the project, from sea-container lifters to various structures in Russia,” reflected Rush. “Eventually we found this crane and started the conversation with the harbour authorities. I think it took them a while to realise we were serious and wanted to put this giant structure in a field in Somerset.”

The Arcadia team has collaborated with experts to help make its lofty ambitious a reality, and Pangea was no different. “We had to bring in a lot of of its 1.2m ROE Visual pixel Strips for internally lighting the DJ booth, and dispatched three crew – Mike Radford, Robin Emery and Anthony Condon – for the weekend to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

CPL’s Dickie Burrow commented: “It was fantastic working on this new Arcadia project. We all loved the spider and this next phase is another great testament to their imagination, craziness and huge inspiration. The ideas are always ambitious but really cool. It was amazing to be part of this show and another great Glastonbury.”

Coinciding with the impressive projection work was a lighting rig to match. “One of the main fixtures that we used on the rig was the Robe iPointes,” commented Cameron-Marlow. Robe’s brand new IP65-rated iPointe combines innovative ingress protection with the spectacular effect features of the MegaPointe. “Over the years we’ve developed a very good relationship with Robe. When we were looking at the lighting rig, we knew we needed a bright fixture but that didn’t have to be covered by any dressing or protective coating. For us the iPointe was the only fixture that ticked both of these boxes.”

Another notable inclusion on the lighting rider came from AO Technologies with its FALCON Beam 2 fixtures. The FALCON Beam 2, with over 300,000 source lumens, were mounted around the outer circle of the arena, creating architectural definition, a towering central focus and a stunning aerial display.

Cameron-Marlow commented: “The FALCONs integrated into our main lighting system perfectly and allowed the experience to take over

the sky. They were easy to install and performed flawlessly throughout the weekend.” Controlling the impressive light show were two Avolites Sapphire Touch. “We’ve used Avolites across the board this year,” commented Cameron-Marlow, reflecting on Arcadia’s long relationship with the console brand. “We’ve also used their Ai RX8 Media Servers – with one main and one back-up – for all the 3D modelling for the media servers. We also have one of their consoles firing all our pyro.”

FIRE AND SNOW

It wouldn’t be an Arcadia show without a dose of pyro. This year was no exception, with the team deploying its own arsenal of in-house fixtures. “It certainly become a speciality of ours,” smiled Rush. “A part of our ethos has always been to keep recycling of the upmost importance. This goes for our pyro shots with half of them using biofuels.”

This ‘recycling ethos’ also led the team to come up with a brand-new look for the show, namely a snow blast. “The snow effect has been a long collaboration between us, Bristol University, Green Peace and a company called Snow Business,” stated Cole. “We were looking at other effects we could use to take over the sky. Confetti was always a no-go due to the impact on the environment. The snow blasts didn’t have this problem and were 100% safe for people and the surrounding wildlife.”

Also, on the effects rider was a collection of MDG Me8s. “The haze they produce complements the show much better than most and we find they really amplify everything,” enthused Cameron-Marlow.

SOUND

A bespoke audio solution for the unique stage was provided by Britannia Row Productions. The Arcadia team has worked with L-Acoustics for a number of years, and following a recommendation from the loudspeaker manufacturer, Britannia Row was appointed as the 2019 audio rental supplier of choice.

“This was our first year working with Britannia Row and, right from the outset, we were very impressed with their knowledge and consummate professionalism,” Cameron-Marlow commented. “Whilst working through non-standard applications and system usage, their team were flexible, creative and always on point.”

Britannia Row’s Marc Soame said: “The new stage is a real centrepiece and sets a great platform for future expansion of the show. Audio is a key component of any Arcadia show, and the production team are well versed in audio design and its considerations for being able to provide a highquality experience for eager audiences.

“The Arcadia team is incredibly creative and forward-thinking, but also very practically minded. They’ve refined their approach over a number of years with the development of the previous stages and wanted to retain a similar approach for 2019 as it was a proven model.”

The main tower systems were inwards-facing L-Acoustics K2/ KS28, with localised outward-facing flown ARCS II on the crane and X12/ KS28 for coverage under the crane – all powered by LA12X. This design was crucial to maximising the audio quality throughout and minimising any overlapping sound sources.

Britannia Row also provided the control package including console, RF and IEMs, as well as DJ equipment and the monitoring system, all safeguarded with a fully redundant fibre-optic drive system and redundant control package. The Britannia Row crew at Arcadia included main PA

system engineer Terrance Hulkes and rig/de-rig technician Jacopo Fois, who worked alongside Matt Howes and Arcadia’s in-house audio team.

Although this year’s Glastonbury has come to an end, the story of Pangea is just beginning. In fact, the mission statement for this year, which was plastered all over Arcadia marketing materials, social media and website, was simple: ‘This year – step inside Pangea and unleash your imagination. Next year – get involved.’

In short, the team want to hear everyone’s ideas about where they can take the show next – be that from an industry peer or even a punter from the field. As soon as the gates opened on the Friday of Glastonbury, the team opened a link on its website that let people suggest how they would like to see the show evolved next year. While speaking to Rush, Cole and Cameron-Marlow, they were delighted to report that the inbox was already brimming with ideas coming from a collection of people and the notepads had already been out jotting down ideas.

Rush gave his final thoughts on this year’s event. “It was a challenge to take a step back from the Spider shows but a necessary one. By the time the festival was over, everyone was brimming with ideas. Now we can really start to push the boundaries of how we can continue to take over the sky. I’m excited where we will take this next.”

Photos: ShotAway, Lukonic Photography and Charlie Ravem www.arcadiaspectacular.com www.cplav.com www.britanniarow.com www.snowbusiness.com www.robe.cz www.ao-technology.com www.avolites.com

TENTS

Providing much-needed shelter during one of the hottest Glastonbury Festivals to date, a range of tents – each with its own, unique character – welcomed festival-goers in droves.

Standing firmly as the largest indoor venue at Glastonbury Festival, the John Peel Stage remains one of the most popular arenas at the event. Named after the late BBC DJ and radio producer, who championed up-andcoming talent as well as the festival, the stage has welcomed a wealth of diverse talent over the years.

In keeping with the theme of constant innovation, SWG Events changed the John Peel Stage FOH PA to a Martin Audio MLA system. The main PA hangs comprised 20 MLA cabinets, 10 elements flown each side, with 12 MLX subwoofers providing LF extension. Four DD12s positioned on the stage focused the sound on the nearfield, while further out-fills were provided by six MLA Compacts per side. The MLA system delivered highquality audio within the boundaries of the tent, while ensuring minimum interference with other stages close by.

In the throes of Bugzy Malone’s headline set, TPi met with the incredibly proud Adlib team, who designed, created, engineered and supplied the Manchester grime star’s festival package to the John Peel stage. There was a good representation of GLP lighting packages across the site. Three

trusses of lighting provided a variety of looks. Ten of GLP’s new FUSION Stick FS20s were adorned to each truss, with three on the floor either side.

The rest of the rig was made up of Martin by Harman MAC Vipers, among others. GLP loaned the fixtures to Bryte Design to complement its show design, while Lite Alternative supplied everything else.

ACOUSTICS STAGE

Undoubtably the top blues, folk, contemporary and country music space on Worthy Farm, the Acoustics Stage welcomed headline acts, Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock & Roll Revue, Hawkwind, Keane, and Rickie Lee Jones to its marquee this year. The diverse line-up also featured the likes of Lucy Rose, Gabrielle Aplin, Albert Hammond and The Bootleg Beatles, among others.

Lighting the way, Rob Sangwell and Simon Johnson of Fineline Lighting added a powerful punch to the Acoustic Stage for artists like The Mavericks and Keane with a festival rig that featured 16 aptly titled Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Spot and 18 Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures. The quality of the colour and the intense brightness of the Maverick fixtures meant Fineline was excited to include these lights as an essential part of its Glastonbury plans.

Apparently visiting LDs also shared this enthusiasm. When Landon Bloss, Lighting Director for the Grammy Award-winning country band The Mavericks, first saw the Maverick MK3 Spot on the Acoustic Stage, his reaction was: “What on earth are those?” He commented that he thought the brilliantly bright fixtures, “must be lamps” and never expected they were really LED units. But Glastonbury has a tradition of serving up surprises, and on this stage that didn’t just happen for fans but visiting LDs, too. For the first time, Avolites took control of the Acoustic tent with the Fineline Production team using the Arena to take care of the diverse line-up.

The Adlib crew; the Bryte Design team with GLP.

RABBIT HOLE

The unique immersive audio capabilities of the TiMax SoundHub were in evidence at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, where two experiential spaces were driven by the pioneering spatial audio engine.

Within the warren of underground venues of The Rabbit Hole, Sova Audio applied TiMax spatialisation to create an altogether different dance arena experience at Funkingham Palace, through a multichannel Funktion One sound system.

Within this inner world, guarded by Alice in Wonderland-inspired thespians with riddles, carrots and magic potions to test wit and determination, Sova Audio’s George Yankov created a sophisticated and memorable sonic experience for house and disco lovers.

Complementing the venue’s dancefloor surround system was a matching monitor set-up for the DJs to experience the same dynamically spatialised audio mix. This was essential because Yankov leveraged the TiMax OSC integration to programme various spatial audio movements controllable from an iPad for the DJs to play with.

An extra mixer was used just for effects and additional sounds, featuring two Korg Kaoss Pads, a Kaossilator, a drum pad and a laptop running samples from Ableton. All sounds were occasionally warped out through a Roland Space Echo.

The Rabbit Hole organiser, Isaac Ferry, explained: “Sova Audio created a sub mix where we could send certain sounds around the room to add

drama to the mix. It was amazing to use, and it really added something special to a magical weekend. It was fun to create strange sounds in our headphones – and then throw them around the room via TiMax.”

He added: “Using the ‘AUX send’ function on the Pioneer DJM 900 Nexus 2, we could assign any audio channel to be sent to RMX 1000 effects sampler. This meant we could EQ out the Bass, add delay to the track and send this delay around the room at various speeds – blended in with the original Dry track from the mixer. It really ‘wonked out’ some already wonky characters on the dancefloor!”

DJs performing with the system at Funkingham Palace included Isaac Ferry, Bushwacka! Craig Charles and Carl Cox, among many others.

AVALON STAGE

Southampton-based GLS Lighting supplied a MagicQ MQ100 plus Playback Wing for the Avalon Stage, which was overseen by Console Operator, Will Thomas. The impressive artist list on that stage included James Morrison, with the desk operated by long-time ChamSys user Martin Dudley of Martin’s Lights, and The Cat Empire with LD Paula Trounce.

Elsewhere, ChamSys continued to be a common sight at the Worthy Farm. The BBC Introducing Stage had a ChamSys MQ80 plus an Extra Wing Compact operated by Zac Leighton and Alex Merrett over the festival.

Silver Hayes’s Wow Stage featured a ChamSys MQ100 Pro 2010 kit supplied by Fineline Lighting and operated over the weekend by James ‘Chimpy’ Harrington. Left Field was covered by a ChamSys MQ80 and Extra Wing Compact supplied by and operated by South West Group Events.

And finally, Greenpeace Field featured a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500, programmed by David Howard.

THE BEAT HOTEL

A much-loved party hub and Glastonbury mainstay since 2011, The Beat Hotel ensured the party took place one last time before checking out for good. Of course, this meant going out in style. Showtec Sunstrip LEDs were embedded into the walls of the stage area dividing the three bedrooms with PALSAR ChromaSpheres suspended down each side of the venue, while the main centre truss consisted of Martin by Harman MAC 101s, MAC 301s and Atomic 3000 strobes. Lewis Beard manned an Avolites Tiger Touch Pro running Titan v11.3 alongside the AV51 team providing technical production and power distribution for the venue.

THEATRE AND CIRCUS

Nestled in the heart of Worthy Farm is Theatre and Cabaret – three fields of spectacles, music and comedy. Complete with high-flying acrobats and puppetry in the theatre and circus field, a wild mix of comedy, ventriloquism, spoken word, and trapeze was the flavour of the space. Inside the Big Top, Fineline Productions brought the show to life with the Arena and the Art 2000 dimmer, creating drama and atmosphere for the huge range of performers and acts.

The Cabaret tent was a unique experience at Glastonbury, with comedians, dancers and a host of different performers gracing the stage. Fineline brought in the Avolites Quartz with a mobile wing to set the mood. A firm favourite with the Avolites team, Glasto Latino brought the eclectic atmosphere of Carnival to the Glastonbury fields. Martyn Sargent of Enlightened kept the party going with the Pearl Expert. A late cabaret

spectacle, Maverick provides a unique alternative for the late-night entertainment. Ben Dodds of Enlightened used an Avolites Tiger Touch II to bring the night to life.

Elsewhere, the iconic Ribbon Tower of the Park area stood high and mighty over the spectators. At night, the tower was illuminated by LED batons, all programmed by Adam Davies on the Avolites Quartz provided by Enlightened.

While nestled in the corner of the circus field, Summer House brought dance troops and live music entertainment throughout the day. Matthew Dunford and Alistair Brick working for Enlightened used their own Titan Mobile to control the rig to ensure complete reliability over the weekend. TPi Photos: SWG Events & TPi www.swgevents.co.uk www.adlib.co.uk www.glp.de www.brytedesign.co.uk www.lite-alternative.com www.finelinelighting.com www.outboard.co.uk www.chauvetprofessional.com www.avolites.org.uk www.sova-audio.co.uk www.glslighting.com www.enlx.co.uk

THE GLADE & SILVER HAYES

Funktion-One teamed up with long-term partner Audio Plus to give Vero its first Glastonbury outing at The Glade. The stage, which enjoyed a mixed programme of DJs and live performances, received plaudits from artists, festival goers and sound engineers, who praised the system’s precise stereo imaging and generous headroom.

Area Coordinator of Avalon, Glade and The Wood, Luke Piper, commented: “I was overjoyed with the new system – it surpassed all expectations. We quadrupled the normal capacity of the venue up to 20,000, with people dancing right at the back of the crowd to Carl Cox, Fatboy Slim and Squarepusher.

“It sounded just as good at the back as it did at the front, with a full range, solid, clear and real bottom end, and great mid-range separation. Vero is a very real ‘non-synthetic’ alive-sounding system that’s perfect for

live and electronic acts alike. It’s the best system I’ve ever worked with.” The Glade Stage system comprised left and right hangs of seven Vero enclosures per side – three V315s, two V90s and two V60s. These flown arrays were paired with an asymmetric bass set-up consisting of a twowide x six-high block of F124s stage left and a stack of four F221s stage right. The system was powered by Lab.gruppen PLM20K44 amps.

A fill system was deployed around the video relay screen which serviced the overspill area. It featured Evo 7Ts with Evo 7THs for enhanced mid/highs and F221 bass enclosures and could be turned on or off, depending on the size of the crowd.

Funktion-One implemented crossover filter discoveries made during the development of Vero VX, leading Funktion-One founder Tony Andrews to conclude that Vero at The Glade was: “The best I’ve ever heard it.”

Dub Pistols’ FOH Engineer Bill Borez was also pleased with the result: “I used the new Funktion-One Vero on The Glade Stage at Glastonbury festival and was extremely impressed with this system – very clean, very precise with great stereo imaging. Vocals cut though beautifully, and the bass was – for want of a better phrase – absolutely enormous.”

Kuenta’s FOH Engineer Jovani Kock enthused: “I had a really wonderful time mixing on Vero – it is everything you want from a PA. As an engineer mixing a band that is low-end heavy, the Vero system exceeded all my expectations by miles. Lots of headroom, without compromising sound quality. I could mix in great detail without having to push the faders too much.”

The audio crew at the Glade Stage; The Video Illusions duo at the Sonic Stage.

The XTA MX36, a DSP-enabled console switching system, also made its Glasto debut at the Glade. “Using the MX36 was a breeze,” Kris Hayes, Audio Plus System Tech said. “It made the whole process of console switching straightforward again. A must-have for any festival drive racks needing multiple formats. A rack of MC2 E Series were paired with DP448s to handle monitoring at the Glade, and we were delighted to step in with the DNA120 and the MC2 Delta 120.”

When it came to lighting, Sam Akinwale took care of the DJs and artists during the day before the main headliners hit the stage using the house Avolites Arena lighting console. Fatboy Slim rocked the crowd on Friday night with Stephen Abbiss behind an Avolites Arena lighting console and Saturday night Idris Elba put on an incredible performance with Abbiss also in control Funktion-One speakers were not only featured in the Glade stage but on several of the stages within the Silver Hayes area of the site.

TPi met up with the team for Video Illusions’ Nick Whiteoak at the Sonic stage. This was the seventh year the company had provided video for this area of the site. Its main focus was the Sonic Stage and Pussy Parlure alongside adding the legendary Gully Blues stage for Chris Gaines – who started Video Illusions Glastonbury adventure all those years ago. Photos: Funktion-One & XTA Electronics www.funktion-one.com www.audioplusuk.com www.audiocore.co.uk www.videoillusions.net

GREENPEACE

Greenpeace made its mark on Worthy Farm this year by installing BEAM – a brand new permanent sculpture, to create a stunning multisensory experience, highlighting the power and importance of pollinating insects to our ecosystem.

Inspired and indeed controlled by the activity of real bees – a colony of Cornish Black Bees in Michael Eavis’ own beehive, to be precise – BEAM was an interactive, multisensory and experiential sculpture that, with the help of TiMax and visual specialists RES London, enveloped visitors in immersive soundscapes and 360° projection and lighting.

Movement-sensing accelerometers, installed within the Glastonbury farm beehives, streamed live vibration data – sounds and vibrations from the bees’ activity – into the BEAM sculpture, to control the musical key and tempo of the soundscape experienced by visitors, refreshing in real time.

Live bee broadcasts, multichannel recordings and a mix of multitrack music stems, by artists from Sigur Ros, Spiritualised and Coldcut were also interwoven and propelled through the space by TiMax SoundHub.

Partnering with specialist collaborators in science, light, film, sound and projection mapping, NEC Display Solutions provided laser projection technology in the creation of BEAM.

Projection mapping across the centre of the sculpture was designed and controlled by RES on two Avolites Ai R6 Servers supplying 12 projectors

with 6k content, fully immersing the audience into the world of a honey bee. Squint Opera was the Creative Content Director, with the Hoarlea taking care of the sound design.

“I am delighted with the NEC laser projectors that are being used in BEAM,” explained BEAM creator Wolfgang Buttress. “They have been essential in creating a multisensory experience, which highlights the existential challenges facing the honey bee. I wanted to use the best technology available to create a sense of magic and wonder. The projectors have helped make this happen.”

At night, the space was filled with 360° projections from 12 NEC PX1004UL laser projectors, animating the walls of the clearing with footage from bee hives with high-definition film, MRI and thermal imagery.

“Our laser projectors provide the robust performance needed for powerful delivery of this breathtaking showpiece,” said Graham Kirkpatrick, technical solutions architect, NEC Display Solutions.

Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures also had a transformative effect on the festival’s Greenpeace Field, where the Bailes + Light team relied on the IP65-rated Maverick Storm 1 Wash to create an eco-friendly forest of light. Adding to the wonderous outdoor panorama were COLORado Solo Batten, ÉPIX Strip IP, COLORado Panel Q40, STRIKE 1 and STRIKE P38 fixtures, along with F4IP video panels and a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 programmed by David Howard. TPi www.outboard.co.uk www.nec-display-solutions.com www.avolites.com www.chauvetprofessional.com

SOUTH EAST CORNER

As the principle Glastonbury stages grind to a halt after dark, Worthy Farm offers a vast array of entertainment options for nocturnal revellers, including legendary areas in the site’s South East corner – Shangri-La, Block9, The Common and Unfairground.

Shangri-La, Glastonbury’s late-night party zone, was once again a maze of weird and wonderful stages and venues this year, each serving up its own unique vibe to festival-goers. While the area primarily came alive at night, The Truth Stage’s all-dayers saw the likes of Craig Charles, Norman Jay, and more take over the day duties. Sleaford Mods also performed as special guests on The Truth Stage.

Created by designer-extraordinaire Block9, IICON, a colossal, anonymised head covered by projection and boasting a six-point ambisonic sound system, made its Worthy Farm debut this year.

Working tightly with Block9 during the past year, Bild Studios provided the pre-consulting and installed the system on site, including the supply of disguise servers, Omnical and projection hardware, supported by Creative Technology. Martin Audio MLA Compact was once again deployed on the Block9’s Genosys stage, a massive, 70ft-high post-industrial piece of architecture draped with exotic plants and steaming tubes, at the centre of which was a DJ booth.

System Tech, Sean Hatton, described the set-up: “We’ve got 10 MLA Compact aside with six DSX subs either side of stage,” he began. “The massive changes in temperature – from searing heat in the day to then

very cold at night – have been an issue this year, but the snapshots that are uploaded easily in an instant without artefacts have meant that we have been able to keep the coverage patterns we need. It’s been great.”

Reflecting on the striking giant human head backdrop used for the IICON stage, Block9 co-founder Gideon Berger described how it evokes the pervasive nature of technology on the human spirit: “It’s a sinister monument to the terrifying realities of this digital, post-truth age that we find ourselves in,” he began. A mammoth 65ft sculpture of a head, it is “anonymised by a giant block that contains an LED wall entranced by the image of itself, and by the screens”.

The visual spectacular was matched by an audio spectacular with Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL) making its festival debut in a stunning immersive 6.1-channel surround sound system designed by RG Jones’ Simon Honywill, Consultant Sound Engineer for the festival.

WPL is Martin Audio’s new large-format optimised passive line array from the best-selling Wavefront Precision series. It offers an adaptable approach to optimisation of line arrays through scalable resolution where the user decides on the number of enclosures with dedicated amplifier channels that are required for the coverage, consistency and control of the space.

“I thought rather than having this incredible structure and then just using straightforward left and right standard deployment, let’s go a bit crazy and do it in surround sound,” said Honywill. “So, we had six hangs of 10 WPL all pointing inwards with optimisation of the sound fields to maximise the experience through the space for a 15,000 crowd. A single 23m-long SHX218 sub array in a broadside cardioid pattern provided the thumping bass, but also control too. Each night there was a specially commissioned presentation where the stage structure is projection mapped combined with 6.1 surround audio, which worked highly effectively. Then for the DJ sets we used a Trinnov Altitude 32 system to effectively up mix the stereo output to the 6.1 surround system and the results of that, were frankly outstanding.”

Trinnov Audio’s Benoit Munoz commented: “Live Sound is not a market Trinnov Audio addresses but thanks to Simon’s enthusiasm for our products, we get the chance to experiment and realise how relevant our technology would be for such application. We were really excited to contribute to this unique sound system, especially with such phenomenal results, and most certainly look forward to being there again next year.”

This was endorsed by Gideon Berger: “This was an experimental design brief, but we’ve been really helped by Martin Audio, RG and Simon, who gave us demo suites to mix in, engineers on the ground to support, and the whole thing has been a pleasure to work with them.”

Summing up, John Carroll, Managing Director of RG Jones, said: “It’s an honour and privilege for RG Jones to once again be at the forefront of the Glastonbury Festival. From headliners to all-night dance music, this was a triumphant year and we are so pleased with the feedback from audiences, engineers and organisers to what we were able to deliver. My thanks also go to Martin Audio, who provided such unwavering support in the planning and execution this year and we can’t wait for next year and the 50thAnniversary of Glastonbury Festival.”

In closing, Dom Harter, Managing Director of Martin Audio added: “What sets Martin Audio apart is its signature sound that can faithfully reinforce the eclectic artists and genres that Glastonbury offers. Combine this with our unique technology that optimises sound coverage, consistency and control and we’re able to unite massive audiences while respecting other stages and local residents. We are grateful to RG Jones for their continued faith and faultless deployment of our systems.”

Transition Video supplied the LED screens for IICON at Block9, working closely with Alan King at production company Rocking Horse and deploying a crew across the Glastonbury site made up of Carl Stage, Peter Hume, Pete Cross, Nathan Dunbar, Kristian Fox Maunder, Ben Sanderson, Arran Vj-Air, Adam Birch and Alexi Parkin.

Standing tall amongst the well-established late-night venues, the new stage aimed to transport visitors to another world. Tim Meadowcroft used an Avolites Arena to control the huge number of fixtures that surrounded the dance arena with the beams visible from across the site.

THE COMMON

The Temple was a haven for Glastonbury’s late-night ravers, with a range of big-name performers and DJs gracing its stage. It’s not just the music and the eclectic atmosphere that makes Temple so special; since its launch in 2017, the face of the Temple has become the centre of attention with a stunning range of visuals bringing it to life every night thanks to the creative minds of the production team.

The team comprised Paul De Villiers as the Lighting Designer, Arran Rothwell-Eyre taking care of the media servers and a team from Limbic Cinema curating the content and operating the live video mixing. Lightwave Productions provided the lighting equipment with the assistance of SGM Events.

This year, Avolites introduced Synergy – the new feature set in its Titan and Ai v12 software, which integrates lighting and video control into one system. “Due to the video-led nature of the structure, it was great to be able to blend the video content and lighting with Synergy to achieve cohesion between the content and the lighting fixtures,” De Villiers explained.

For the kit, De Villiers chose the Avolites Arena for the lighting control. “The Arena is my go-to desk for many reasons; it has a large number of faders and execute buttons and the mini screen can be quite handy,” he explained. “The native optical output is also really useful; on previous jobs we’ve had a mile-long run of fixtures with no latency at all. The large main screen is also great for the Pixel Mapper and NDI overlay.”

To handle the video, three Avolites Ai Q3s were brought in; one main, one for Synergy and one as backup. A Titan Net Processor was also installed to create a content distribution and server management network. For software, the Arena ran a beta of Titan v12 with the Q3s running the newly released Ai v11. The media servers used five HD outputs with the live input running at 2,048 x 2,048 resolution.

To bring the set to life, the team needed content and on a large scale. Limbic Cinema was commissioned back in 2017 to curate the video content and since then it has been building up a library of video of all different artistic styles, textures and colours. Once the stage was built, a team of five designers was on site, creating more content.

Formatting video to the preferred video codec of the server can be a major issue when working with large teams of designers, but a key feature of Ai allows content of any format to be fed into the software and the Ai Transcoder automatically converts it into the AiM Codec. It also didn’t matter what size or shape the content was. Once the content was uploaded

to the server, the Ai Mapping Editor could process it and map the content to the structure with ease.

The next stage was to bring the show together. Five HD projectors were used for the mapping and a total of 65 fixtures including 12 Aqua beams that surrounded the face of the Temple were brought in. The trick was to make it all work cohesively.

To create a fully immersive experience for the attendees, it was vital all of the visuals told the story together; this was where Synergy took centre stage. De Villiers used Lightmap – a key Synergy feature – that allowed him to directly pixel map the video content to the fixtures. “The structure was mapped to the pixel mapper on the desk and from there I could control how much the video content affected the lighting using a mode 2 fader. This allowed us to make a smooth transition between the video cues and lighting,” he said.

Getting this map right was vital. The original UV map of the stage was complicated and didn’t match up directly with the stage itself, so a camera was set up in Ai with the live feed going into the Synergy Q3 server. The live output from this was then fed to the Arena, giving De Villiers the picture, he needed to design his show.

Projection mapping such a complex structure was no mean feat. Many of the areas of the outer structure were layered and therefore regular edge blending was not suitable. Lighting Designer Rothwell-Eyre used the Salvation Patching in Ai to add masks to certain areas, allowing the projectors to map out the structure accurately. Once the preparations were done, it was time to go live. The video was operated by multiple people, all bringing their own style and creativity to the show. The Arena was operated by De Villiers and his team.

The weekend was a slick and spectacular success. “The show went really well,” De Villiers said. “Once the map was correct everything went really smoothly. Synergy is surprisingly easy to use as everything is native to the platform. It really is a game changer.

“It’s changed the way I design my lighting,” De Villiers continued. “It’s made it so much easier to work around video. I’m able to frame the video screens and make maximum use of them. You can frame the screen with a group of fixtures and pixel map to amplify the video content and have it blend out.”

Not one to mince his words, De Villiers has had enough industry experience to know a good thing when he sees it. “I was happy to take a risk with the new software after popping into the Avolites office and having Matt Jennings run me through it,” he said. “You have to use it out in the field to really see if it works. I’m looking forward to using it at Boomtown this year.”

Just around the corner, TPi witnessed LUCID’s latest creation at Samula. Two Avolites Q3 powered the stunning waterfall effects on the Samula stage. Limbic Cinema created the content for the waterfall effect, which was designed by Tom Price. Using Notch, Price developed real-time lighting effects on the waterfall. All of this was controlled natively using Midi controllers for live VJ-ing. The stage was designed and built by Chris Carr at Lucid Illusions, while Mel Cornish used an Avolites Tiger Touch II for the lighting design. Video Illusions were also in the Common providing the video for the remarkable brand new Samula Stage.

The Samula stage boasted a 11.5m high by 9m wide Video Illusions VIL6mm making it a breathtaking, unique and captivating stage based on a phenomenal design by LUCID. Video Illusions’ Nick Whiteoak stated: “This year has set the bar very high for Glastonbury’s big 50th in 2020 but then with this year’s suppliers – that challenge is already on. See you in 2020!”

UNFAIRGROUND

Unfairground welcomed a new venue, The Blind Tiger. Artists such as 50 Pence, Fanny Tastic and Jim Bitch were names among the line-up. The GLX Productions team, led by Managing Director and Lighting Designer, Glenn Gridley, took care of the install and lighting design of the stages.

The Flying Bus Stage was a hub of activity, featuring an extensive array of Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures to create transformative moments. Engaging and surreal effects were conjured by 12 Maverick MK Pyxis, 12 Maverick MK1 Spots and three Maverick MK1 Hybrid units. Positioning these fixtures inside and under the bus, they endowed it with a glowing otherworldly vibe powered by an Avolites Arena, whilst the Tiger Touch II and Tiger Touch Wing lighting consoles brought the party to the rave tent. The area also featured a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 lighting console. TPi Photos: RG Jones www.block9.com www.bildstudios.com www.ct-group.com www.rgjones.co.uk www.martin-audio.com www.limbiccinema.com www.transitionvideo.com www.rockinghorse.tv www.lucidcreates.co.uk www.lightwaveproductions.co.uk www.lucidtechnologies.co.uk www.videoillusions.net www.glxproductions.com www.chauvetprofessional.com www.chamsyslighting.com

CATERING

Eat to the Beat ensured that crew, artists, production and BBC personnel at the Pyramid stage, Other Stage and interstage area were well catered for at Worthy Farm. They produced breakfast, lunch and dinner for five days; a steady stream of snacks and refreshments; band riders, incorporating numerous dietary requirements, along with post-show spreads.

This year’s festival saw more than 24,000 meals served by a 64-strong Eat to the Beat team. They used 2,160kg of potatoes, 4,000 bananas, 80 litres of tomato ketchup and served 400 homemade pizzas. Whilst its crew members were clocking up, on average, a staggering 40,000 steps per day.

Sustainability is always at the forefront of Eat to the Beat’s service delivery. This is across the board, from recyclable and biodegradable disposable service ware and effective waste management to developing menus that offer plenty of tasty alternatives to meat dishes including vegan options and securing local produce wherever possible. The company reduced the quantity of beef it served by 30% from 2017 and served 10% more vegan meals than 2017. And, in line with the festival’s pledge to ban single-use plastics across the site, there were zero bottles served in any of their dining rooms.

Commenting on Eat to the Beat’s 20th successful year at Glastonbury, Mary Shelley-Smith, global operations director said: “Having delivered catering for crew and artists for 20 years, Eat to the Beat is now undoubtedly part of Glastonbury’s history. As events go, they really don’t get any bigger. A quick look at our numbers for this year’s festival; the quantity of meals served, the sheer volumes of produce needed or how many team members were involved and how hard they worked, is indicative of that. We’re incredibly proud of our long-standing relationship with Glastonbury and look forward to working with the team for many more years to come.” TPi Photo: Eat to the Beat www.gigcatering.com/what-we-do/eat-to-the-beat/

THE EVENT SAFETY SHOP

The Event Safety Shop (TESS) has been the appointed safety contractor for Glastonbury Festival for nearly two decades. Hannah Charlton, who has worked with TESS on 15 years of Glastonbury Festivals, was the company’s festival safety co-ordinator, supported by Adam Blaxter and the wider TESS internal team.

Charlton told TPi: “There have been a huge amount of positive changes over the years and we make sure an enabling safety culture is interwoven into the creative fabric of Glastonbury Festival. With more than 200,000 people on site the organisers are confident of public welfare thanks to precise plans and on site expertise.

“TESS’s overarching responsibility in 2019 was providing strategic advice and information in advance and on the ground practicable implementation to permanent staff at the festival in the operations team and the area organisers. We are also liaising with agencies and providers of medical welfare and fire safety, creative and technical production teams, contractors, licensing authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority.

“We produced and managed a whole suite of safety documentary information and distributed the information to all the relevant stakeholders. We introduced a new online induction system and online reporting, vastly reducing paper use, while making it quicker for everyone and allowing us to capture the information we need,” Charlton commented. “One size doesn’t fit all at Glastonbury – from small areas to big staging and power contractors, down to people that come in and only do a small build – we are here to enable creativity without the audience even realising there is a layer of safety behind it. It is the uniqueness of it that keeps it interesting.

“We have a permanent on site presence from the beginning of the build, with the arrival of the full team from the week before the festival getting everyone fully up to speed with the precise details. We are in regular meetings throughout the event and are co-located close to event control, making sure they’ve got information that we might be aware of along with anything we’ve done in advance.

“A large, qualified TESS safety team was deployed, incorporating subject area specialists: electrical, structural, gas and noise at work. The teams made sure we checked on compliance and get venues signed off. Gates opened on 8am on Wednesday but some venues and principal stages didn’t start until Friday, so TESS carried out constant inspections to allow build areas to operate with public on site across a staggered opening.

“As well as engineering weight and wind loading calculations, 25 stages or venues had special effects brought in, ranging from large spectacular laser displays to gas flame effects, which required specialist attention.

“2019 was the first year Glastonbury banned plastic drinking bottles, which was really positive, and they had plenty of Water Aid booths where people could go to get drinking water, along with a huge number of standpipes and taps to keep everyone hydrated.” TPi www.the-eventsafetyshop.co.uk

BACKLINE

Supplying backline, risers and crew throughout the site for another year was Music Bank. Setting up a base behind the Other Stage, the company used its arctic truck as a base for the impressive logistic feat, ensuring that orders were met on time at each stage.

In total Music Bank provided four crew members to battle the scorching temperatures. Discussing its involvement with the festival was Jon St Claire. “I was very happy that we were quiet on the Saturday,” he laughed, as he looked back at this year’s event. “We had made sure that everyone had their orders which meant we weren’t having to do many moves during the highest temperatures of the day.”

He went on to explain that usually the biggest challenge for the Music Bank team came during the collection of orders once they had been used but not packed up correctly.

“That wasn’t as much of a problem this year – in part thanks to us make a comment to our customers prior to deliver.” Another key player within Music Bank’s success wat the festival was Julie Sparrow, the company’s bookings manager. Among Sparrow’s responsibility were liaise with artists, stages and Glastonbury team to make sure everyone gets what they want.

To get all the equipment from A to B, the team had a fleet of three vehicles including a pickup truck with a winch system, which due to the dry condition thankfully didn’t have to be rolled out this year.

“We worked well into Monday morning, collecting equipment from all across the site and finally had everything accounted for by 2pm Monday.” The arctic truck located behind the Other Stage was also stocked to the brim with all the products artists might require on the day from drum heads, sticks, guitar strings and tape.” TPi Photo: Music Bank www.musicbank.org