ROCK 'N COKE INSTALBUL

Over a roasting hot weekend that attracted around 60,000 revellers, international acts including the Smashing Pumpkins, Chris Cornell, Manic Street Preachers and Franz Ferdinand topped a bill that featured some of Turkey’s most prominent homegrown artists such as the outrageous Hayko Çepkin who made his stage entry by climbing out of a giant chrysalis!

    Also on the bill was Badly Drawn Boy who we bumped into for the second time in a week. Performing in such intense humidity, one wondered if he was starting to doubt that his iconic woolly hat was such a good idea after all.

    Rated as one of Europe’s fastest-growing festivals, the event is — as the title suggests — produced by Coca-Cola in association with the country’s leading promoter, Pozitif Müzik.

    Coca-Cola event brand manager Levent Soygür said: “We are very proud of the festival. It’s a big, long-term investment, even for a global brand like Coca-Cola, but it’s an ideal communication bridge between us and young people, and so we put a lot of energy behind it every year. We always have a great line-up and this year’s no exception.”

    Rock’n Coke 2007 marked the debut of Stageco Türkiye Ltd, yet another regional branch to be added to the international staging giant’s growing empire.

    Stageco Türkiye is a partnership with the Istanbul-based Grem Group. With a high profile client base which includes Microsoft, Shell, Panasonic, Vodafone, General Electric and Hyundai, the Grem Group has earned a fine reputation as one of Turkey’s leading designers and suppliers of staging solutions for exhibition booths and corporate conventions, since its formation in 1991.

    A few years ago, Grem started to dip it toe into the rock’n’roll world when it supplied box truss stages for Turkish events starring Deep Purple, Placebo, Korn and Dream Theater, and its alliance with rock music and other forms of demanding live event production is now set to take a huge leap forward.

    “When we started the company, we couldn’t have imagined we’d ever be in rock’n’roll!” said Gülnur Inkaya of the Grem Group.

    “Last year, we were planning to design a new stage of our own and manufacture it here in Istanbul with a view to servicing larger events, when Firat Kasapoglu [see sidebar] suggested we form an alliance with Stageco, and benefit from their resources to produce a much higher quality service for the country as a whole.

    “Tom Bilsen and Dirk de Decker came to see our operation and warehouse, and they gained an understanding of our existing business and the potential for other opportunities in Turkey. We were also delighted that Rock’n Coke, Pozitif and other promoters were excited about introducing a more professional approach to staging.”

    Stageco’s Boogdak stage has been employed by Rock’n Coke since the first festival, whilst Pozitif’s other live events have used locally-sourced aluminium trusses and scaffolding for its stages. However, the founding of Stageco Türkiye means that the globally-recognised professionalism of the brand can now be provided within the country.

    Said Inkaya: “We’ve struck this deal with Stageco a little too late in the year to get into the summer market to do much more than Rock’n Coke’s main stage, which was a very good starting point, and we brought over Stageco’s Boogdak stage system which will now stay with us.”

    It wasn’t long before Stageco Türkiye’s Boogdak stage was on duty again, for a concert by Sir Elton John in Baku, Azerbaijhan on September 23. It returned to Turkey for local events commemorating National Day on October 29.

    “Everyone here is very excited about Stageco coming to Turkey,” said Inkaya. “We’ve had visits from some people at the Belgian head office who have come to teach our staff about certain aspects of the stage systems, and that is likely to continue as we increase our manpower to meet demand.

    “We have a core system that will remain here ready for additional staging to be shipped over and added to it for any event, depending on its size.

    “The company name is known worldwide for its high standards and this will hopefully make a major contribution to the growth of Turkey’s live music market.”

    The 2007 production office team was led by Dutch production director Leo van der Velden who worked alongside Pozitif’s production manager Uluç Dündar, who was assisted by Orçun Ejder and Meriç Dündar.

    “We always liked to use local staging suppliers, but the trouble has always been that there’s never been a staging specialist based in Turkey that can handle this scale of event until now,” commented Dündar. “But Stageco always does it right, and it has been amazing to work with the new Turkish branch. The level and ease of communication has been excellent and we look forward to a good partnership in the future.”
    
GROWING FAST
Dündar has worked in event production for seven years and joined Pozitif in 2003 to help launch Rock’n Coke. “The festival has grown very fast,” he said. “It started with an audience of 7,000 and by the third year we’d hit the 30,000 per day audience capacity. With this location, we can’t go beyond that, so the main things we have concentrated on are improving the production infrastructure and making everyone more comfortable.

    “We always begin the site build a month in advance followed by the arrival of our backstage offices and around 20 department heads. By the time the festival opens we have about 8,000 workers on site.”

    With headline sponsorship by live broadcaster Dream TV, part of Turkey’s biggest media group, Group D, Rock’n Coke was serviced by the top production suppliers in Turkey — among them were Altinçizme and Kontrol Teknik (sound & lighting), Erisim Elektronik (Lighthouse R16 LED video screens), Kiralik Çadir (tents) and Çinarli (crew catering), with custom-made crowd control barriers sourced from various companies. Perimeter security was provided by members of the Turkish Gendarmerie, while a number of local security companies manned the site.

    For the main stage, Altinçizme supplied a Crown-powered JBL VerTec line array with Midas Heritage 3000 consoles for FOH and monitor mixing, L-Acoustics 115 wedges, a Meyer UPA-1P/650-P drumfill and JBL sidefills. A grandMA desk controlled a lighting rig that featured Martin MAC 2000s, MAC 500s and Atomic strobes, plus Clay Paky Alpha HPEs and Washes, Studio Due CS4s, numerous PAR 64 bars, 8/4-lite Molefays and Lycian follow spots.

    Across the field, the mainly DJ-orientated ‘alternative’ stage, serviced by Kontroltecknik, Avolites Pearl 2004 and Diamond 4 Elite lighting consoles controlled MAC 2000s, 550s and 600s, SGM Victory 2s, Studio Due ACLs, Source Fours, Atomic strobes and further PAR 64s.

    The PA system here was also VerTec and included an H3000 at FOH and a Yamaha M7CL mixing to EAW and HK Audio monitors.

MEDICAL ATTENTION
Unlike most festivals that come to mind, Rock’n Coke has a complete hospital facility on-site, with fully-trained doctors and nurses — and a dentist! — available to attend to any emergency. Leo van der Velden explained: “It’s quite amazing! They have eight beds [including a ‘VIP’ bed], a pharmacy and, yes, two operating tables.”

    The thought of being under a surgeon’s knife while the Manics perform ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ in the background is quite unnerving to say the least. Even more disturbing is the fact that such procedures have actually been necessary.

    “They had to perform a life-saving operation here last year, and even last night a skateboarding demonstrator fell badly and needed urgent attention,” said van der Velden.
    “This is my first year at Rock’n Coke and it was very surprising to arrive on-site and find an ambulance waiting on stand-by, prepared to take any crew member to hospital who may have been injured during the set-up.

    “It’s not something we are used to back in Holland and I have to say that it’s a wonderful safeguard that the festival has provided to the audience and crew alike. To be so well-prepared for any inevitability can only be a good thing.”

    TPi has witnessed and been party to some hilarious security crew behaviour this year, but few instances have rivalled the decision of one guard at Rock’n Coke who declined to allow me into the general audience area after I left the artists’ compound, despite having all the correct passes. Usually, I’d have the reverse problem, but perhaps the language barrier was an influence!

    Regardless of such minor irritations, Rock’n Coke is a well-organised and thoroughly entertaining event, staged by a bunch of very friendly characters. An experience I’d be keen to repeat anytime.