Adlib out in force at Creamfields 2019
- Details
Creamfields attracts 70,000 dance fans each day for three days with a DJ line-up representing the diversity of dance culture and sounds. Merseyside-based Adlib worked directly for creative production specialist LarMac LIVE and their team led by Ian Greenway.
The logistics and planning of the lighting side of this highly detailed project were coordinated and project managed by Adlib’s Jordan Willis. The designs for arenas CF07 and CF09, for which Adlib supplied the full lighting packages, were created by Ian Tomlinson from High Scream.
A curved layered structure clad with LED video panels set the aesthetic tone for CF05, making a complete curve but with some strategic gaps left in between the LED where lighting could be secured to the scaffolding superstructure.
Adlib added 20 x Martin MAC Aura XB LED wash moving lights, 20 x Claypaky Axcor Beam 300s, 60 x Chauvet COLORdash PARS and 12 x CP Stormy LED strobes for blasts and accents. All of these were attached to the structure to keep the stage completely clean and clear. Control was a grandMA light and Adlib’s techs were Dave Smith and Ash Dawson, also both operating, supported by technician Peter Lea.
CF07’s lighting design was based around a combination of flown elements and a substantial ground support over the stage, installed by Prism.
Four raked finger trusses provided ‘roof cover’ for lighting above the stage and DJ booth, lower at the back and higher at the front. These were rigged with 24 x Claypaky Mythos moving lights, 20 x Ayrton MagicBlades and four Martin MAC Viper profiles for key lighting.
The rest of the main stage / audience lighting positions were created with eight angled tower trusses – four on each of the stage wings - each loaded with 10 x MAC Aura XBs and five JDC1 LED strobes - totalling 80 and 40 each of these fixtures respectively.
On the stage five MAC Quantum Wash moving lights dramatically back lit the DJs. Control was a grandMA3 full size running with a grandMA light for backup, and this area was operated and coordinated on the ground for Adlib by Tom Webber and Paul Abdullah.
The tented architecture for hospitality was created using three conjoined saddlespan stages, from which the Adlib team flew an 8m-diameter circular truss to provide all the key lighting positions.
On this were 12 x Chauvet NXT-1 LED matrix moving lights, combined with 12 frosted colour-changing Showtec LED cubes hung on catenaries mimicking the room’s décor and furniture design.
These were joined onstage by 16 x CP Axcor Spot 300s and 20 x Chauvet COLORdash PARs deployed on four vertical trussing towers on the stage deck.
Twenty-four CORE ColourPoint CP20s battery-powered wireless LEDS uplighters were dotted around the Saddlespan ceilings and ensconced in the trees for ambient lighting. All the hospitality lighting was controlled via an Avolites Tiger Touch II console operated by Oli Gorman and Harry Holme.
Adlib’s audio project manager was Jay Petch, and their crew chief was Billy Bryson who was also responsible for the system designs and implementation of the end-fire setup. For audio, the arenas serviced were CF05 (Pepsi Max), CF06 (Sexy by Nature), CF07 (Axtone), CF09 (The Silo) plus hospitality.
CF05, the Pepsi MAX Arena featured the sounds of Paul van Dyk, Sander van Dorn, Will Atkinson and many more, which were enjoyed by music fans through a Coda sound system, comprising six AiRAY boxes per side, each of these stacked on top of four SC2 subs. FOH & monitor control for CF05 was a DiGiCo SD11, and Adlib’s crew were James Claridge and Matt Gadsby.
For CF06, Hassane Es Siahi was at FOH and Steven Selby on monitors. The large tented space offered flying facilities and the chosen PA chosen was an L-Acoustics K2, with 12 x K2 elements for the main left-and-right hangs working in conjunction with two flown delay arrays further down the tent with four K2s in each.
The delays provided more efficient coverage across the large space and assisted with the level control, so that the main system didn’t have to be driven so hard.
On the ground, 20 x L-Acoustics KS28 subs were rigged in 10 stacks of two in an end-fire array. The desk was a DiGiCo S21 running with a DiGiCo D2 stage rack.
(Jim Evans)
