Bandit Lites worked with 3SRcreative, the design firm comprised of lighting designers Seth Jackson and Nathan W. Scheuer, media/video director Brent Sandrock and project manager Jack Rushen to light the event, where more than 130 artists performed on eight stages over three days, culminating in a weekend of great performances by both up-and-comers, bonafide legends, and the most popular artists of today.
In its tenth year at Grant Park, and a massive 300,000 three day attendance record, Lollapalooza included performances from OutKast, Eminem, Lorde, Kings of Leon, Artic Monkeys, Skrillex, The Avett Brothers, Foster the People and Calvin Harris.
"C3 presents and their head of production, Brandon Sossamon run a tight and organized ship," said Jackson of the event production company that puts on Lollapalooza, and in the spirit of being organized, communication is key. After designing a rig for each of the four main music stages, Jackson sent the plans to the performers, promoting a dialogue between production manager and LDs to work towards giving the performers their own unique designs, while still covering the needs of all the various artists performing throughout the day.
"The real heroes in that process are the two mainstage stage managers, Jeff Wendt and Casey Carter," expounded Jackson. "They keep everything on time, keep all the bands happy, watch the weather and winds (weather is electronically monitored at each stage site), and are ready for anything! On top of that, I have my dedicated coordinator, Jack Rushen who helps keep everything running between the stages and the change overs."
One of the main challenges for the event was providing enough of a variety in fixtures choices to give each of the varying acts as much as possible to work with, while still being comparable to their normal touring rigs. Additionally, it was crucial to be flexible with the main stage design as most headliners brought a touring rig of their own, meaning crazy truss configurations were forfeited to make room for space.
"This was a new way of designing for me," added Jackson. "You have to get deep into the nuts, bolts and hardware of the process and stay organized, or it will get away from you and run you over. It is great for me to exercise that part of my brain again. Sometimes, as a designer, you can get too far away from things and take a 'let the shop figure it out' attitude. This kind of project doesn't allow for that, which is good thing."
Jackson went for efficiency in the design, studying other designers' rigs to create a flexible design that streamlined the day.
"For example, everyone has Sharpys in their rig; I put as many of them as possible into the design, and then added more for a couple of the acts. You can't have a big ego on this job. You are there to support and help everyone else," said Jackson.
Equipment for the event included 88 VL 3500 washes, 53 VL 3000 spots, 86 Clay Paky Sharpys, 96 Mac 2ks, 44 Nexus 4x4 Strips, 70 Martin Atomic Strobes, 70 Aura's, 200 GRNLite pars, 140 Motors, over 2000 feet of truss, and was accompanied by an assortment of Grand MA 2 full consoles, Road Hogs, Solaris Flares, Bandit 5x5s, and GRNLite washes.
(Jim Evans)
