Adlib was out in force across the live music calendar this summer, supporting an eclectic mix of festivals, outdoor shows and major international tours across the UK and Europe. From forests and city centres to the Isle of Lewis and Wembley Stadium, Adlib demonstrated the breadth of its rental operation, with teams delivering audio, lighting, video, rigging and automation for artists and events spanning folk, dance, country, pop, classical and rock.
The festival season got underway for Adlib in May at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland, before gathering pace in June with TRNSMT in Glasgow, On the Waterfront in Liverpool and Forest Live. For Forest Live, Adlib supplied audio across four very different woodland locations in Cheshire, Suffolk, Gloucestershire and Staffordshire, as Forestry England celebrated 25 years of bringing live music to the nation’s forests.
July brought another change of scenery, with Sounds of the City taking over Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl. Adlib delivered audio, lighting and rigging across the series of outdoor shows. The team then headed considerably further north for HebCelt on the Isle of Lewis, supplying audio control and PA system equipment for the long-running festival in the Outer Hebrides.
Jay Petch, Head of Account Management, commented: “It’s difficult to think of another time of year that shows the breadth of what we do quite like the summer. Over the summer months our teams have worked in forests, in the middle of cities, on an island in the Outer Hebrides and at Wembley Stadium. We’ve been working with clients we’ve known for many years, as well as welcoming some fantastic new people into the Adlib family.
“The variety of music and environments keeps everyone on their toes, because no two shows or sites are the same. Whether it’s a control package heading into a festival or a multi-discipline production on a stadium tour, it comes down to understanding what the client needs as well as having the right people on the ground to help make it all a reality.”
Building on an established touring relationship, Adlib once again supported Luke Combs on the European leg of his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, supplying LED video, lighting and rigging alongside dedicated audio control for support acts. The run included three nights at Wembley Stadium, where Combs became the first solo country artist to headline the venue, a milestone officially recognised by Guinness World Records.
Adlib also joined Doja Cat’s Tour Ma Vie World Tour, supplying an integrated lighting, video and rigging across the UK and European dates.
Robert Dugan, Production Manager for Doja Cat’s Tour Ma Vie World Tour commented: “We had a very successful European tour. We played to incredible audiences, had a number of sold-out dates, and delivered the show consistently without significant production delays. With a production of this scale moving through different countries and venues, that kind of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from having experienced people making good decisions every day, often behind the scenes. Adlib was an integral part to that success. They gave our touring team a partner we could trust, provided an extremely high level of technical and operational support, and helped us deliver the show at the standard we wanted every night.”
Alongside these major touring productions, the summer saw Adlib and sister company triplex supply dedicated audio control packages for Djo, Jessie J and Kingfishr, giving their production teams a consistent touring setup as they moved between festivals and outdoor shows.
5 Seconds of Summer continued their relationship with Adlib for both their European and US legs of their Everyone’s a Star! World Tour, with PA and audio control supplied across the run. Adlib was also back on the road with Ludovico Einaudi, delivering audio, lighting, video and rigging for a varied programme of arena and open-air performances across Europe. Elsewhere, Kaiser Chiefs continued their long-standing relationship with Adlib for their summer shows and festival appearances, with a bespoke monitor control system and a dedicated floor lighting package.
Snow Patrol were also out across major outdoor headline shows and festivals with PA and audio control from Adlib, ahead of three nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall later in September. Audio control packages were additionally supplied for Becky Hill and The Script across their respective summer festival schedules.
August rounded out another busy month of outdoor activity, with Adlib returning to the Green Man Festival in Wales, marking 20 consecutive years of supplying the main stage, before heading to Creamfields in Cheshire for one of the biggest weekends in the UK dance music calendar.
Throughout the season, Adlib continued to work closely with its network of manufacturing partners across audio, lighting, video, control and rigging, including L-Acoustics, DiGiCo, CODA Audio, Allen & Heath, Shure, Chauvet, SGM, Martin, MA Lighting, Ayrton, Robe, Unilumin, Ross, Panasonic, Yamaha, Disguise, Avolites, GLP, Sennheiser and Tyler Truss Systems.
Together, those relationships between manufacturers, suppliers, production teams, artists and crew have helped Adlib deliver one of its most varied summer programmes, from remote festival sites to some of the biggest stages in live music.
