GLOBAL GATHERING - AVOLITES AND ROBE STEAL THE SHOW

The stunning visual design - that united lighting, digital and video sources into one seamless atmospheric experience for all five arenas and three terraces - was created by Nick Jevons and Phil Winward of Electric Fly Productions.

Site-wide lighting equipment was supplied by Blackburn-based HSL, and crew from both companies collaborated closely to ensure that it was one of the most visually memorable Global events to date.

It was the first time that HSL has worked on Global Gathering, and follows their work on other leading UK festivals Creamfields, Bestival, Rockness and Gatecrasher.

HSL project manager Mike Oates comments, “We worked extremely closely with the Electric Fly team led by Nick Jevons and Phil Winward, with site production manager Neil McDonald and event Manager David McCalmont. It was an extremely well planned and organised event with massive emphasis on high production values, everything ran smoothly and it was a real pleasure to work on.” 

It was also the first time that Electric Fly has worked on the festival, brought onboard after their groundbreaking visuals work on BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and 1XTRA events. They were commissioned as designers for their innovative approach to - and fusion of - lighting, digital lighting and video elements. They  created a colourful, imaginative and coherent visual theme for Global Gathering.

This linked all the different areas, and also allowed each individual space its own identity, look, feel and ambience, all based on the exploration of perspectives. Atmosphere is key to enhancing any form of dance music, and getting the right lighting and visuals make a big difference to the whole experience.

The organisers were particularly keen to work with a single lighting contractor with the ability to supply the diversity of lighting kit specified by the Electric Fly team. HSL also has the largest stock of Robe moving lights in the UK and were able to offer an excellent package.

The seven arena/terrace Avolites consoles included two Diamond 4s, two Pearls and three Tigers.

Main Stage

The lighting design was based around the specs of Friday and Saturday night headliners Kanye West (LD Jonathan Goldstein) and Mark Ronson (LD Matt Arthur). The stage was a 20 x 15 metre Star Events VerTech roof, below which HSL sub hung three cross stage trusses and stage left and right side trusses.

Moving lights were 56 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs and 38 Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs rigged across all trusses. The Kanye West show also featured a substantial floor lighting package including 24 of the 56 ColorWash 1200E ATs. These had massive impact in a powerful performance with minimal front lighting, and huge drama and excitement created from silhouettes and shadows.

Goldstein ran the show on a grandMA console, while Matt Arthur used his desk of choice, a Jands Vista, which was also utilised by Roisin Murphy’s LD Rob Sinclair. HSL’s FOH ‘babysitter’ was Steven Abbiss.

Global/Godskitchen

In the 12,000 capacity Global/Godskitchen arena, Nathan Wan programmed and operated the in-the-round lighting design – which included 40 Robe ColorWash and Spot 2500E AT moving lights, 18 Hungaroflash strobes and 16 bars of 6 PARs. His Diamond 4 Elite was also driving the Maxedia Compact media server run by Jake Jevons, feeding video content to 48 Barco MiTrix touring panels.

Artists performing included Tiesto, Judge Jules, Sasha, Armin Van Buren, Ferry Corsten and many more.

Stealth/Random Concept

Across the site in the Stealth/Random Concept Arena, Tim Williams ran an Avolites Pearl Expert console which was driving a spectacular 10 metre 'wall of death' constructed from 240 PAR cans in 20 pieces of pre-rigged truss. The aesthetics were carefully developed to accentuate the rich Old Skool vibe of this tent. The PARs are being run via video content from a media server triggered by the Pearl. Topping each piece of pre-rig was a huge special fuzz light. Sixteen strobes were scattered between the stage and audience trusses, and the retro ambience completed with 20 High End Cyberlight Turbos hung on the over-audience trussing.

Polysexual/Cocoon

A ground support system was used to rig three concentric goal posts over the stage, which were clad in low resolution CK iColor tiles. The stage and audience lighting was a combination of 24 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs and 12 Martin Professional Atomic strobes. All of this, and a Hippotizer digital media server feeding the iColor tiles, was run via a Pearl Expert operated by Toby Hogarth.

Bedrock/Spectrum

The eye-catching architectural elements in this tent were three shrinking-perspective trussing semi-circles, loaded with 240 Pulsar ChromaStrip LED tubes, evoking a crazy starburst LED effect. Instead of running these through a media server, the RGB control of each individual strip was harnessed through the console, allowing operator Mark Jones to take full advantage of the Avo Diamond 4’s shape generation facilities, so it effectively became as effective as a media server. He also made the most of other D4 effects like dimmer and colour spreads. The D4 was also controlling 26 Robe moving lights onstage and 8 over the audience, plus 12 Atomic strobes.

Terraces

Three Avo Pearl Tigers in stand alone mode were utilised to run the three open air Terrace areas designed by Electric Fly – Mixmag, Polysexual and Raveology/Air. They were controlling an assortment of fixtures including Martin Stage Bars and SmartMAC 150s, Coemar SuperCycs, JTE PixelLines, Atomic strobes and plasma screen content. All these stages featured a mix of DJs and live acts.