A WALK IN THE PARK

A prime London concert site since 1968, Hyde Park has played host to some of the world’s biggest names in music over the decades. The late, great Pavarotti, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who’s Quadrophenia and Live 8 were just a few of the artists and events to have drawn massive crowds here.

    Recent years have seen the O2 Wireless festival and the Hard Rock Cafe-sponsored Hyde Park Calling added to the Park’s long history of successful music events, and on Saturday 8 September it was once again time for the BBC’s annual Proms In The Park, which continues to marry traditional roots with mainstream pop.

    Although being at the nearby Royal Albert Hall on the same evening for the Last Night of the Proms concert is a very close competitor, there’s really no better way to experience it than in the open air at Hyde Park where, through a live audio-video link-up, the audience gets to join in the with the finale singalong with the added bonus of a superb fireworks cresendo.

    Now in its 12th year, Proms In The Park remains one of London’s most popular events. This year, Sir Terry Wogan was present as usual to host a charismatic line-up of international musical talent. The programme was headed by opera star Lesley Garrett who was joined by pop star Will Young, Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez and Young Musician of the Year, clarinetist Mark Simpson. As ever, Carl Davis and the BBC Concert Orchestra accompanied the performers and filled the Park with orchestral favourites.

    Essential Lighting provided the lighting for the evening’s festivities with Tony ‘Turbo’ Hall repeating his lighting designer’s role. This year saw an evolution of last year’s set design by Hattie Spice of Spice Lumb, using a monochrome backdrop which presented an ideal lighting opportunity for Hall. The stage structure was supplied by Edwin Shirley Staging and rigged by the team from Outback Rigging.

    The entire lighting rig was installed over four days and included 20 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, 30 MAC 250 Entours and wash lights in the form of 30 MAC 250s, six MAC 300s, 14 MAC 2000s and seven MAC 700s. Additionally there were 20 chrome six-lamp PAR bars, 16 ETC Source Four profiles. Hall also utilised Studio Due CS4 moving ACLs at the far left and right of the stage to highlight the audience as they waved during the live TV link-up with the Royal Albert Hall. Dimming was handled by seven 48-way Avolites Art 2000s and a pair of 24-way Art 2000s.

    Sixty-eight Molefay 8-lites were used as audience lighting for the 40,000 people who attended. These were rigged on the video and audio delay towers to gain maximum dispersion across the entire site. Four Gladiator follow spots were also craned into position in the spot towers during the build.

    Control was via a grandMA desk for all the moving lights, and a Whole Hog iPC for the generics. Essential used its radio DMX system for control of the audience lighting, saving on over 300 metres of DMX cabling to some of the farther reaches of the site. Back-up was via an ETC Reflections system for the generics, and laptops for the MA console.

    Programming started on the Wednesday evening, with both lighting consoles actually on the stage, since the off-axis control position prevented a clear line of sight to all of the lighting positions. Once all the presets were in place, the whole control system moved to the control tower, and the programming was finalised over the following two nights. MA Lighting’s 3D Visualiser was also used for additional programming for the warm-up acts during their soundchecks, which took place in daylight.

    Hall, who programmed the rig along with Martin Seymour, was particularly impressed with the performance of the Martin fixtures. He commented: “The new Martin MAC 250 wash lights have made a huge difference to the design this year. Being so much lighter in weight than anything with comparable light output means that I no longer worry quite so much about rigging weights in the structure, and can get light where I need it.

    “The MAC 700 washes are also a great leap forward in light output versus weight, meaning that I could get these rigged much further out on the canopy than in previous years. The MAC 2000 Profile is still a great workhorse, and offers the huge effects and superlative light output that I need on a project of this nature, where the first half of the show this year had a bright sunset streaming on to the stage!”

    Essential was also involved in some of the site lighting, providing coloured MBI fittings to indicate the colour coded exits, and 16 green MBI fittings to both highlight the trees that form the backdrop to the stage setting and also to provide an element of safety lighting in the fireworks fall out zone.

    Being an outdoor British concert, the weather was a consideration — especially this year, although Hall said: “We enjoyed a week in the Park without any rain whatsoever, which is most unusual for this event!”

    Proms In The Park was production managed by Partnership Productions for the BBC. Barry Tofield was the production electrician for the evening and James Tomlinson chiefed the lighting crew which included Seb Williams, Simon Clench, Alan Boyd, Matt Ilott, Matt Clutterham, Tim Massey and Graham Loughman.

    Other key suppliers included System Sound with Simon Biddulph heading the sound design which featured two DiGiCo D5 consoles at FOH, and a mixture of Yamaha PM5D, M7CL, LS9 and DM2000 consoles on monitors, each handling different aspects of the stage sound. The main PA system was L-Acoustics V-DOSC with d&b on stage. Creative Technology provided three LED video screens — two 60m2 Unitek 25mm and a 40m2 Barco D7 — and took feeds from the BBC’s OB unit.

O2 WIRELESS & HYDE PARK CALLING
The O2 Wireless festival presents another opportunity for the mobile phone giant to cast its net over the live music world... as if a huge dome in Greenwich wasn’t enough! Launched in June 2005 in Hyde Park, the event has since occured simultaneously at Harewood House in Leeds.

    This year’s three stage line-up featured The White Stripes, Daft Punk, Faithless, Kaiser Chiefs, Queens Of The Stone Age, Air, The Bees, The Thrills, Calvin Harris, Editors and Kate Nash amongst many.

    A week later, over the same weekend as Glastonbury (June 23-24), the site was taken over by Hyde Park Calling for its second successful year. Presented by the Hard Rock Cafe organisation and (like Wireless) produced by Live Nation, Hyde Park Calling may not be as ‘hip’ as the O2 event but for the less fashion-conscious music fan, it has masses to offer.
    Despite the veteran status of the headline acts, many other bands across the three stages — and their audiences — tend to be younger and this results in a highly contrasting programme with more of a family atmosphere than on the previous weekend.

    The bill included Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, Crowded House, The Feeling, Buena Vista Social Club and Chris Cornell, who lined up alongside hot London band The Thirst, Ghosts, Jason Mraz, Seth Lakeman, Jet, Gareth Gates and Amy Macdonald.

    Although the sun was out for most of the day, it took only a burst of ‘Weather With You’ by the reformed Crowded House to crack the heavens wide open at around 7.30pm, and it remained wet and miserable from then on.

    “We’d been very lucky with the weather for the most part this year... and now this!” said John Probyn, Live Nation’s festival director.

    The clash with Glastonbury may have been unfortunate for some fans, but for many it was an attractive option. “Actually, the whole idea of this came from Glasto,” said Probyn. “As a promoter we realised that a lot of people don’t go there either because they can’t get tickets or they’re not the kind who want to go to that type of event. So we developed a very high quality alternative for them.

    “Peter Gabriel attracts an entirely different audience compared to Wireless — some come with champagne and picnic hampers. Then you have the whirlwind that is Aerosmith whose crowd are a different species once again. The great thing is that on a Saturday night when the gig’s over, the audience then have the bright lights of nearby Soho to entertain them into the early hours if they so wish, so Hyde Park is a perfectly located venue in that respect.

    There were changes in the staging and fencing departments this year for both festivals, with Stageco and Entertee taking up the respective batons, while Britannia Row (sound), PRG Europe (lighting), Creative Technology (video screens), XL Video (cameras and PPU), Templine (power), Mojo Barriers (barricade) and the ever-delicious Eat To The Beat (catering) remained in place.

    Said Probyn: “We get criticism for using the same contractors every year, but consistency is very important to us because Hyde Park is a difficult venue to work in on a number of levels, especially because it’s a Royal Park. There are some very strict guidelines to adhere to that you never face anywhere else. The more experience a supplier has here, the better.”

    The production manager was ex-Stereophonics PM Neil McDonald who initially ran Wireless, then added Hyde Park Calling to his responsibilities. Probyn described McDonald as “very nice guy who’s a classic case of someone who’s tired of the road and wants to do the same job without touring all the time. He’s exactly the kind of guy who will get on well with a corporate sponsor and do everything right without any rock’n’roll bullshit. Because of Hard Rock’s commitment to music it works well, but like any sponsor they’re demanding and want their money’s worth.”

    Previous events in Hyde Park that have attracted crowds of around 80,000 or more usually required up to three security companies who worked together on different elements of crowd and site management. With audience capacity scaled down for Wireless and Hyde Park Calling, Probyn was able to put the job in the hands of one company, Showsec, with Simon Battersby appointed as head of security in charge of more than 250 staff.

    Battersby commented: “It’s great to have complete control of what is a really excellent site. The audiences love Hyde Park — these shows are very geared towards hospitality and people have found it a very enjoyable festival experience which always helps towards a peaceful event with no significant problems for us to deal with. The only real issue was finding enough staff on the same weekend as Glastonbury, but thanks to our national offices we’ve been able to ship people down without any fuss.”