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SIX60 SATURDAYS SIX60’s long-time audio supplier, College Hill Productions deploys L-Acoustics and DiGiCo for the band’s biggest tour to date…
Signalling brighter days ahead, New Zealand’s musical summer took a turn for the better for six weekends in January and February, as local rock outfit SIX60 took to the road for their SIX60 Saturdays tour. The band played a series of venues with a stellar line-up of local guests to the largest audiences the country has seen since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, with SIX60’s long-time audio supplier, College Hill Productions along for the landmark journey. “The past 12 months have been a rollercoaster, everything happened pretty quickly,” said College Hill Productions Operations Manager, Reeco Adriaansen, on the topic of New Zealand’s first lockdown period late March 2020. “Prior to the lockdown, we watched all of our confirmed jobs wiped from the calendar and that was scary, we had around three months of our busiest period disappear over a few days.” Adriaansen and the College Hill Productions team began evaluating the future of the company at that point. “Thankfully, government wage subsidies rolled out pretty quickly and covered most of the lockdown period which meant we were able to retain our staff. From there we entered
survival mode, by diversifying to find some income and maintenance, lots of maintenance work because there was nothing else to do.” Given the months spent in exile, when the call came in for the first show post-lockdown, College Hill Productions staff were eager to get back on site and power shows. “I think we had a few volunteers on the very first one. In general everything went smoothly, there were a few habitual things that needed remembering but they were minor,” he recalled the physical aspect of the gig the hardest, given the team’s latency with months away from the job. “There were a few sore muscles after the first few gigs. It’s hard to replicate truck packs and being on your feet all day while being isolated at home.” Discussing some of the challenges that still face College Hill when it comes to putting on live events, Adriaansen cited two further snap lockdowns taking place over a few weeks at a time late last year. “These created some uncertainty, especially the first one, as you don’t know how long it’s going to be for and you fear the worst,” he added. “Luckily, most events were postponed as opposed to cancellation. This did, 26
