Introducing All Points East

All Points East is a new 10-day event that encompasses a diverse 3-day music festival which included headliners LCD Soundsystem, The xx and

Björk followed by a 4-day community-focussed, mid-week programme of comedy, outdoor cinema screenings, and park yoga, plus much more to reflect the vibrancy of London’s Victoria Park as a venue. The event culminated in 3 huge APE Presents… shows. Friday’s headliners were Catfish and the Bottlemen, Saturday saw indie heroes The National take to the stage, and Australia’s best-dressed goth, Nick Cave, brought his Bad Seeds out to close the Sunday finale.

Fans were even treated to a surprise performance with Kylie Minogue for her and Cave’s creepy 1995 love hit Where The Wild Roses Grow. In short, APE is a cityscape festival offering a varied and high profile line up in a festival setting. Naturally, the quality of production had to follow suit. The 10 days of programming were underpinned by a truly enjoyable festival environment, technical excellence, state of the art facilities and hospitality areas unlike anything seen before in Victoria Park.

The vendors behind events such as British Summer Time Hyde Park (BST) and the team from the world’s number one venue, London’s O2 Arena, promoters AEG, set out to deliver the highest of standards across every aspect of the event.

PRODUCTION

Production Manager, Ian Greenway, Director of LarMac Live, spoke to TPi about year one: “LarMac has had a long working relationship with Jim King, AEG’s Festival Director, and more recently, has worked with him and the bigger APE Presents team on British Summer Time in Hyde Park, where we look after all of the creative overlay around the site. LarMac has a bit of Victoria Park history too, having also worked on Field Day over the past 6 years. Familiarity with both the site and understanding AEG’s way of working was a really good start for us to be able to create something really great straight from the event’s first year.

“First year shows are definitely harder work, but there’s something about a determined and excitable team who are focussing on a new task that is quite inspiring, and that far outweighs the huge effort!”

As far as APE’s main suppliers go - Pearce Hire, PRG XL Video, Colour Sound Experiment, Capital Sound and Music Bank - the team is handpicked. Greenway continued: “There isn’t one supplier on site that wasn’t worthy of being there, and once again, we ask a lot of people throughout this kind of event, and yet our teams delivered brilliantly.

“I think it’s really important that production, just as any other department, is allowed to build their team from scratch. We have multiple vendors up our sleeve for every event under the sun, but not every supplier is suited to every job, every artist or even every schedule. I like to try and build a positive atmosphere on site as I’m a big believer that this is what gets us through even the stickiest of situations but this is only possible by getting the right blend of faces and personalities on board. I think knowing your team’s strengths and getting this initial mix right is probably the most important phase of putting a multi-stage show such as APE together.”

Did Greenway feel the pressure when all eyes are on the delivery of a brand-new event? “Keeping cool, calm and usually collected is a massive part of our job in production, and not just a nice trait to have. You have to be realistic (things do sometimes go wrong, despite all the planning you can muster!), and you must be empathetic to the crew so that you can maintain a clear perspective over the entire project.

“By far the most important thing that allows LarMac to stay calm is our amazing team, both in-house and externally. Laura Hall and Molly Iredale who worked on Artist Liaison, together with Siobhan Shaw and Tiger Brewer on the technical team helped the days fly by. Success stories such as APE 2018 are million times more enjoyable because of them.”

Indeed, not content with orchestrating a seamless production, LarMac also undertook APE’s Artist Liaison duties. Greenway continued: “It worked well in the Hyde Park event structure since AEG took on the shows there, and while to us it didn’t seem like an obvious addition, over time it became clear that there’s an efficiency to be had by conducting AL. There’s an element of double handling happening when 2 departments operate autonomously; while the conversations are quite different most of the time, there’s always a crossover and a bit of confusion from artists about who talks to whom. If we can streamline that in to one conversation then it’s actually quite easy for us to process and complete the advances quickly. We’re purely on site representing our client, and so artists walking away happy and feeling looked after is really important to us.”

STAGING

“Just Like BST in Hyde Park, we’re looking at 6 show days and 4 midweek Open Houses back-to-back over a 10-day period,” continued Greenway. “Everything is in the site for so long, it made sense for us to go to the extra expense of making the shows look like they live in the park and hadn’t been thrown in ready pull out again the following day.

“So the 3 outdoor stages were all quite ‘permanent’ in appearance. Stage 2, our North Stage, was a take on the famous Hollywood Bowl. It’s a traditional Orbit roof product from Star Events, but had a lot of scenic skins applied to give us the concentric arch affect. It looked great, and gave the park a sort of amphitheatre under the trees.

“We also made sure our house set-up was tour-friendly. A lot of festivals are limiting in terms of what can and can’t be brought in by touring acts, and even though space was tight we were able to receive everything they wanted to bring in. This allowed us to see some truly incredible shows from the likes of Justice and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,” he concluded.

Working alongside Loudsound and LarMac Live, Star Events supplied the festival’s four principal platforms, including the main East Stage, a 20m VerTech, the North Stage, with its concentric arches, the tented West Arena and all the requisite support structures.

The X Stage, an ambitious in-the-round experience with a hovering DJ platform, highlighted AEG Presents’ creativity, putting the finest electronic talent into the heart of the audience.

Star Events’ design team joined 2 5m wide/38m span arches at the apex to bring the X Stage to life, using core rental stock enhanced by ‘specials’ built for the project. Alongside its stunning lighting capacity, each leg of the structure housed an inward facing speaker configuration, which delivered a truly immersive audio experience.

Speaking on site, Gavin Scott, Star Events’ Project Manager, commented: “With a lot of work behind the scenes, the X Stage came together brilliantly. There were significant structural challenges, everyone involved with the design played a part in bringing it to fruition, and it’s a great achievement.

“AEG Presents, Loudsound and LarMac Live have been a pleasure to work with. The vibe has been really good, a collective of people working to achieve something special, and safety levels have been noticeably high, which is great to see.”

Greenway added: “There are some quirky things here, and Star Events was the perfect fit for our staging vendor. When you experience the X Stage first-hand it’s like nothing else. It’s indoor / outdoor; it’s in the round, a really interesting DJ experience.

“All Points East isn’t a 2-day staging load-in, it’s a really complex project and Gav has been absolutely fantastic. Running a project like this takes a certain approach, a certain eye for detail, and nothing is a problem for him. He can chip off and tick a lot of boxes before we even clock there’s a problem because he knows what we are trying to achieve.”

Due to hosting In The Neighbourhood events for the local community, the All Points East site was subject to a few modest changes ahead of the APE Presents... shows. With a commitment to giving the park back to local residents and Londoners for the days in between the 2 huge weekends of music, APE In The Neighbourhood hosted an eclectic, free music programme including sets from 47SOUL’s fusion of traditional Palestinian street music and deep electronic beats, Dutch psych trio My Baby, Kosheen’s Sian Evans and the Hackney Colliery Band as well as DJ sets from Too Many Man ft Fay Milton (Savages), Gypsy Disco Soundsystem, DJ Chris Tofu MBE. Film screenings included Moana, Suffragette, Made In Dagenham and The Little Mermaid.

Björk left crowds stunned with her stage show.

“Talks are already taking place about how we can improve the site and planning for next year. LarMac is brilliant to work with. Ian is such a good bloke. He’s a brilliant production manager and he never seems to get flustered!” Scott laughed, unknowingly confirming Greenway’s earlier sentiments.

Vernum went on to explain that it has been refreshing to work on a site which not only is the power team familiar with, but were able to change up: “We took a different approach with the power infrastructure here; one of the biggest changes was the creation of a number generator farms in set areas around the site.”

All Points East is the first festival where Pearce Hire has had the opportunity to use this a renewable diesel fuel which is chemically equivalent to fossil diesel fuel. Vernum continued: “This fuel can be used in our existing diesel engines whilst significantly reducing non-renewable C02 emissions. Working in collaboration with the AEG team, we used 40% HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) on All Points East this year and due to the success, we’re looking to increase this to 80% in 2019. There are multiple benefits to the use of HVO and we are embracing this at Pearce Hire to meet our client expectations for reduced environmental impact and carbon footprint, as well as more sustainable practices and budget management of HVO fuel.

“With the creation of generator farms, we could use fewer generators to power the site and manage them more intelligently to reduce fuel usage,” he told TPi.

POWERING THE PRODUCTION Pearce Hire also became involved with All Points East via Loudsound, with whom the company had a pre-existing business relationship. Pearce was contracted to provide all temporary power and site lighting for the event. Pearce’s Project Manager, Jake Vernum , joined the conversation: “We have worked with Loudsound for a number of years on various events including Field Day Festival and Demon Days. We’re very familiar with the Victoria Park site because we have been a regular contractor for Field Day and Lovebox which, up until last year, also took place at Victoria Park. Pearce Hire are the only temporary power supply company with that length of tenure at this site. We’ve worked here for over 7 years!”

In total, there were 11 generator farms across Victoria Park, including those dedicated to the stage areas. The farms were all constructed from synchronised intelligent generator sets, with full back up and load-sharing capabilities which enabled them to run at lower capacity resulting in reduced emissions with lower fuel consumption. All of the synchronised generator sets are installed with data logging equipment which recorded the power consumption, and load data throughout the event. This provided invaluable statistics post event to review and advise on more efficient and cost-effective processes in future years, to prevent over specification and to reduce costs and a continuing reduction in emissions. Vernum continued: “There was a requirement for heavier mains distribution across the site from these farms - and we invested in a considerable amount of additional cable to address this!”

Vernum led a core team of 5 power crew working throughout the event, which increased to 14 during the build and break. “As well as the power infrastructure, we also provided low energy festoon and site-wide lighting. We’ve made a significant investment in low energy LED lighting solutions for festoon and efficient site lighting in recent years. On a show like this, we tend to focus a lot on site lighting. It’s important to ensure the safety of the public, staff and crew working across the site. A lot of effort goes into making sure the site is efficiently and effectively lit. Which is why there is a continual investment programme in site lighting equipment at Pearce Hire. We ensure that all outdoor lighting is switched off during the day, using Light Sensing Photocell Distribution. This is another important environmental product Pearce Hire are continuing to invest in.”

Indeed, one of the main drivers for temporary power supply at festivals is the environmental impact. Sustainable practice and production values are a philosophy that runs throughout all Pearce Hire’s projects. “It was great to have such a positive collaboration with AEG and the All Points East team on this event and to work towards shared goals when it came to sustainable practice and reducing the environmental impact of the festival. It was a great 2 weekends, it was really hard work being on site for 23 days, but so worth it! It felt like All Points East really captured the imagination of the whole community and, from a crew point of view, it was great to see all the work pay off over what in essence was a production with 3 different festivals: All Points East Festival on the first weekend, then the community festival In the Neighbourhood over the weekdays, finishing with the All Points East Presents headline shows on the second weekend. There really was something for everyone! It was a really diverse event and one Pearce Hire is proud to have been involved in. We hope the relationship continues in the future,” he smiled.

AUDIO Capital Sound was brought in by LarMac, with whom the audio experts had also worked before at this very same, challenging outdoor venue. Capital Sound provided site coverage, and its Account Manager, Martin Connolly, underlined the benefit of having a single point of contact for all the various stages. His crew equipped the main stage with Martin Audio’s ground-breaking MLA, hanging 13 enclosures and an MLD downfill each side, with 14 MLX subwoofers in a spaced array to accommodate the various stage thrusts. Providing front-fills were a number of Martin Audio DD12’s, mounted on top of the subs - Capital’s regular ‘go-to’ solution. 3 delay positions saw further Martin Audio deployment, with 2 masts of MLA Compact enclosures (respectively 6 and 12) and a third delay of 12 W8LM Mini Line Array elements. The second stage saw 10 MLA and an MLD downfill on each flank, with 11 MLX in a broadside sub array. 6 W8LM provided front fill and a further 6 formed the delay mast.

For the main stage, Capital Sound also provided an Avid Venue Profile for FOH mixing, and a microphone package by Shure including the Beta 57A, 58A, 52, 98 models, KSMs and the classic Shure SM57 & SM58 handhelds. In monitor world, a Yamaha CL5 work surface and a Yamaha RIO3224-D digital stagebox were provided alongside a Shure PSM 1000 in-ear option. As it’s set in a residential area, noise pollution from Victoria Park is always an issue with the nearby residents, placing pressure on Capital’s main stage Systems Tech Dan Fathers. But while the extraordinary control properties of MLA ensured that the production company were always within their offside threshold of 75dB(A), they were able to achieve extraordinary results for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, reaching levels of 101dBA Leq (to 15 minutes) at the mix position with peaks of 108dB. This was something that did not escape the band’s sound engineer Matt Crosbie, nor Production Manager Ian Greenway. “The PA was fantastic, with all the headroom required for a Nick Cave show,” exclaimed a delighted Crosbie. “I was extremely happy.”

Capital Sound’s Martin Connolly concluded: “Even though this was a brand-new festival, it garnered some amazing business which is understandable when you look at the line-up! It was great to work with Ian Greenway and his team at LarMac once again; their advance work made the event seamless, from load-in to load out, APE was an absolute pleasure to work on.”

BACKLINE

Music Bank was asked to be the main provider of backline & risers for the duration of APE. Director, Jimmy ‘Mac’ McNally, was pleased to be on board with the new event: “It’s brand new and already highly successful. Working closely with LarMac Live, who are great producers of live events. APE was a refreshing beginning to the start of another busy year for us.”

Music Bank supplied crew, backline, some staging elements, and DJ equipment amongst taking care of endorsed artists across all 9 stages. “From rock to electronic pop, we catered for a vast array of requirements for a diverse weekend of music,” added Music Bank’s Julie ‘Jules’ Sparrow. “We supplied a large quantity of equipment to satisfy the varied riders including gear from Gretsch, Yamaha, Mapex, Pearl Drums, Roland Keyboards, as well as Fender and Ampeg guitar amps to name but a few. We look forward this new festival’s future.”

LIGHTING & VIDEO

Lighting for 4 of the festival’s larger stages was split between PRG XL Video (East and North) and Colour Sound Experiment (West & South).

CSE also supplied the Despacio stage & lots a bars and architectural lighting The West stage was a busy bands stage with lots of overnight turnarounds and supplied specials including DJ Richie Hawtin who requested a tungsten-esque rig. General purpose kit included Robe BMFLs, Claypaky Sharpy LED Wash 600’s TMB Active DMX Sunset Sunstrips and Claypaky Scenius Unicos, all of which were controlled by an MA Lighting grandMA2.

The South stage was designed as an ‘in the round’ DJ stage with a central circular truss. For this, CSE supplied Robe MMX, Claypaky Sharpys, Martin by Harman Atomic 3000’s and generic molefays as the main fixtures controlled by

PROUD TO DIRECT TECHNICAL PRODUCTION & ARTIST LIAISON ON THE INAUGURAL ALL POINTS EAST SERIES

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS PRODUCING LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

BESPOKE & CREATIVE | TV | LIVE MUSIC| EXHIBITIONS

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ALL POINTS EAST FESTIVAL & PRESENTS (UK)

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UNRIVALLED IMMERSIVE AUDIO

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Star Events’ Gavin Scott; Pearce Hire’s Jake Vernum; Capital Sound’s Les Mommsen, East (main) Stage PA & Stage Tech; Music Bank’s Jimmy ‘Mac’ McNally; APE Production Manager, LarMac Live’s Ian Greenway.

Bars and the site’s architectural lighting were lit with various outdoor fixtures, including Dragon 220, Spectra flood Q16 and Spectra flood Q40’s. CSE Director, Hayn Cruickshank, told TPi: “It was great to be involved in this innovative new festival, & good to see the big promoters still investing in creative ideas beyond the main stage. The first year of any festival is always tougher for suppliers but I’m sure this one will be even bigger and better next year.”

PRG XL Video also has a longstanding a close relationship with Larmac Live and AEG, and provided both lighting and video services. PRG’s Project Manager, Luke Jackson, provided lighting services to both the East and North stages, and video to all 4. The East stage was the largest, with a standard festival set up, North had a design brief involving lighting curved set panels to create a very bespoke and custom stage design. PRG also provided extra lighting to complement the in- house set-up for acts including, Björk, LCD sound system, The National and Catfish and the Bottlemen.

The East Stage welcomed a heady rig of 26 PRG Best Boy HP spots, 20 PRG Best Boy Wash, 16 Icon Beam 280w, 18 Solaris Flare, 40 EXE rise hoists, a WYSIWYG system, 2 Bad Boy Ground Control systems, 2 Longthrow 4kw Ground Control systems, 6 Icon Edge, 8 Claypaky a.Leda B-EYE K10’s, 30 Martin by Harman MAC Aura XB’s and and 15 SGM Q7’s. For control, 2 MA Lighting grandMA 2 full size consoles were utilised.

The North stage comprised 16 Mac Viper Wash DX, 26 MAC Viper Performance, 8 MAC Aura XB’s, 35 EXE rise 500kg hoists, 10m Smartmast system, and a Best Boy GroundControl system. This time, grandMA Light desks were the surface of choice. Additionally, Sunday’s headliner Nick Cave used PRG’s GroundControl Followspot system and an extra 30 Martin by Harman MAC Aura XBs and 18 MAC Viper Air FX.

PRG XL Video’s Gordon Torrington stated: “It was a pleasure to be involved in this new venture on the Victoria park site. The atmosphere was great each and every day and I look forward to next year.”

Video needs across the site were required across 4 stages, and were also provided by PRG XL Video. The largest of the video deployment, on the main stage, saw the 10-day event welcome some visually stunning shows from headliners. The man stage video specification saw portrait IMAG screens - 5.4m x 9m - made up of ROE MC-7 LED screens. Onstage, the screen was again ROE MC-7, running 12m x 6m. The crew also had 4 Sony HD camera chains and Panasonic 450 HD camera PPU. A Barco e2 screen control system and fibres from FOH to the stage was also utilised.

PRG XL Video had around 15 crew on site over the 10-day period including Dana Read, North Stage Crew Chief, Ben Hornshaw, East Stage FOH, Project Manager Luke Jackson and Smartmast Rigging Specialist, Reece Zimber.

Paul ‘Macca’ McCauley told TPi: “It was a pleasure working with LarMac Live again, but equally in being part of the first ever APE shows across both weekends. A new festival is always a challenge for the crew, but PRG XL Video was very happy to deliver video requirements across 4 of the festival’s stages.”

With a happy audience, happy team of production crew and the coucil on side, All Points East is set to be a 2019 destination must. TPi Photos: TPi, Jordan Curtis & Santiago Felipe. www.allpointseastfestival.com www.aegpresents.co.uk www.larmaclive.com www.stareventsltd.com www.coloursound.com www.prg.com/uk/en www.capital-sound.co.uk www.pearcehire.co.uk www.musicbank.org

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