3 minute read
Boomtown: 11th Chapter
BOOMTOWN FAIR
Antonio Pagano.
The Nucleus Spectacular Show was a highlight of the night. Designed by the Invisible Circus and programmed by Video Illusions team - Whiteoak, Oli Chilton and Avolites’ Sam Parry. Playback was all controlled by Abelton 10 to run full SMPTE timecode control to Aardvark SFX’s George Davies-Coward flames and pyrotechnics. Toby Macknight of Laser Grafix used cutting edge technology Parry programmed in an Avolites Arena to feed eight performers across the stage in bespoke LED bodysuits, designed by Tim Chown of Smoking Hot Productions.
The suits changed colours throughout the show, with the sequences created by Chown to integrate these into the show. Parry connected the suits to the Arena using a modified dimmer personality that allowed DMX signals to be sent via bit-data. Parry then triggered the cues for the suits in line with the show from the desk out to Chown’s wireless transmitter.
The Wolf Lighting crew comprised Jon Oliver, Simon ‘Diggers’ de la Cour, De Villiers, Trev Fairclough, Stu Barr and Sam Parry. While the Video Illusions team was made up of Crew Boss Chilton, Jake Burchell, Alex Buxley, Mike English, Zac Mugleton and Visual Operators, Tom Wall, Dan Shutt and Pagano Supplying lasers for the third year on the Nucleus stage and Relic stage was Laser Grafix, who were introduced to Boomtown through Video Illusions. “Having everyone return and being familiar with the festival really helped and the team behind Nucleus stage,” Whiteoak explained.
“It’s a great festival and everybody is happy to be here and get stuck in,” Macknight said. “They’ve taken it to another level really. It’s a good family, friendly bunch of people to work with and alongside. Everyone helps each other out, it’s the ‘Boomtown spirit’.”
He added: “It’s not a normal structure where everything is contained, so hanging and rigging can be a bit of a challenge, as well as waterproofing fixtures – which is half the challenge for us.”
Laser Grafix deployed the same setup on both stages. Eight 24w Phaenons and 20 Starbeam fixtures. “The council don’t allow us to use any audience exposure effects with the lasers.” To overcome this, the team utilised Starbeam fixtures single beam fraction effect for multiple colour output.
A further 10 lasers were deployed on the Relic Stage, including six 24w Phaenons and Starbeams, six MDG fog machines on both stages and a wireless control systems to control the effects remotely from FOH, Macknight dubbed as a bonus at festival sites where “the cabling gets muddy”. The majority of the show was busked live. “We work closely with the lighting operator taking turns of coming in and out with lights, which is good because we prefer to run most of our shows are like that.”
The Laser Grafix team comprised Macknight, Olly Yates, John Strahan, Charlie Creese, Rupert Morse, Justin Griffith and Corinne Webb. While the Aardvark FX crew comprised Crew Chief, Mark Skuse, Taylor Egan, Jack Crane and Davies-Coward.
Since the birth of Boomtown Fair in a gloriously sunny forest clearing back in 2009, AF Live has been at the beating heart of the event, providing full technical production management to the festival as it’s grown to encompass over 100 stages. This year, AF Live’s Paul Rose and Matt Howes designed the PA for the Nucleus stage – as well as working closely with the Relic design with SSE Audio Group and d&b audiotechnik.
Nitelites was brought in by AF Live to ensure sonic clarity. System Technician, Jamie Moore picked up the story: “The system design changes every year. This time AF Live has really pushed the boat out by developing an intelligent surround sound set up,” Moore said. “The idea is that the audience will receive the same surround sound and energy of the speakers throughout.”
An extensive L-Acoustics rig comprised 48 K1s, 36 K2s and 38 Karas were spread over 20 hangs along with four ground stacks of 38 KS218s and 78 LA12Xs. Dante networking, Lake LM 44s and LM 26s handled processing, while a DiGiCo SD9 was specified for control.
“There isn’t a festival like this in the world, in my opinion. The effort that goes into the set and sound design is spectacular,” Moore said. “Our role is to the give the audiences as much impact as possible without exceeding limits.”
The Nucleus audio team comprised Boomtown Audio Crew Chief, Adam Benton; Nitelites Systems Engineer, Moore and System Tech, Tom Geoghegan; Boomtown System Technician, Howes and Boomtown FOH Tech, Timothy Steer.
LION’S DEN Lighting for the illustrious stage was achieved by Chris Scott, who specified and extensive lighting rig comprised PRG ICON EDGES, Claypaky Scenius
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