The Reading Festival, the world's oldest popular music festival still in existence, and its sister festival, the Leeds Festival, took place simultaneously in August, sharing the same bill. Neg Earth provided the main stage lighting, trussing and control systems and turned to MAC 301 Washes, MAC III Profiles, and Atomic 3000 strobes with Atomic Colors scrollers.
Perhaps the world's best known outdoor music festival, Glastonbury, took place in June and as in years past featured a plethora of Martin gear. Neg Earth supplied Martin MAC III Profiles and Atomic strobes for LD Willie Williams for U2's performance on the Pyramid Stage; MAC III Profiles and Stagebar 2 linear LED battens on the Other Stage for the Chemical Brothers, Mumford & Sons, Friendly Fires, and Jessie J; and a Martin M1 lighting console for LD Richard Karkum on the Other Stage for Kaiser Chiefs. A Jem Roadie Compact high-output fogger was also used to provide professional atmospheric effects for several acts at Glastonbury.
Rental company DPL supplied MAC 101s, MAC 301 Washes, and MAC 401 Dual RGB Zooms with Jem ZR44 Hi-Mass foggers for LD Cate Carter on Glastonbury's John Peel Stage while Fineline was lighting supplier for the Acoustic Tent, Theatre Tent, Circus Big Top, Trash City & Outside Circus, delivering MAC 350 Entours, MAC 101s, MAC 700 Profiles and LC Series LED panels with graphics from a Martin Maxedia media server.
Festival De Cornouailles is the new name of Quimper, France's classic festival where street musicians, dancers, singers and performers take to the streets for what is one of the largest celebrations of Breton culture in the world. At night, the focus turns to concerts with this year's headliners including James Blunt, Suzanne Vega and others.
LD François Guillet, who used Martin MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 401 Dual RGB Zooms and LC Plus Series LED panels on the main stage, singled out the MAC 401 as an extremely useful side light with warm colour and cold or warm shades of white.
Salacgriva, Latvia hosted the fifth annual Positivus festival in mid-July, the Baltic's largest rock music festival. Stage design and lighting designer was Andrey Dubkovs of Lumen Art Division, who turned to Martin MAC 101 and MAC 301 Wash LED moving heads along with MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC 2000 Washes and other Martin gear.
The likes of Suede, Interpol, Elbow and Band of Horses played the second annual Northside Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, in June, with Nordic Rentals delivering a Martin rig that featured MAC 401 RGB Zooms, MAC 700 Profiles, and Atomic strobes. Nordic also delivered MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 401 Dual RGB Zooms for the Skanderborg Festival while lighting designers Lars Nissen and Kasper Steen Lange turned to Martin MAC III Profiles and Atomic strobes for the iconic Orange stage at Denmark's renowned Roskilde Music Festival.
LD Palle Palmé chose a Martin lighting package for the new Summerburst dance music festival at Stockholm Stadium in early June, which boasts Northern Europe's largest dance floor. David Guetta and other top DJs performed beneath a Martin rig of MAC III Profiles, MAC 301 Washes, MAC 2000 Wash XBs, MAC 2000 Washes, and Atomic strobes with Atomic Colors with graphics splashed across a Martin LC Series LED screen.
(Jim Evans)
