Colour Sound also provided LED screen to the Dance stage and lighting for two silent discos and the Action Aid tent - and replicated all of this in Leeds. Additionally, two and half kilometres of Colour Sound's DMX controlled IMS LED Festoon was installed at Reading to enhance ambience and mood across the whole site. This element was nearly doubled from last year due to its massive popularity, particularly with the BBC, who recorded and broadcast the best of the event action.
As well as Reading and Leeds that same weekend, Colour Sound supplied lighting for the North and South (open air) Stages at Creamfields near Warrington and lighting for all four stages, along with video on stages two, three and four at the SW4 Festival on London's Clapham Common. Ten artics rammed with kit left the Colour Sound Warehouses in the preceding week.
Andy Melleney led Colour Sound's team at Reading, where harking back to their dance music roots, they provided an awesome looking system for the Dance Stage - a 4 King pole 50m wide performance space.
The production lighting rig was designed around accommodating Sunday night headliners Knife Party who brought in their massive new house set - complete with first floor balcony / DJ booth. Two ground supported 'goal posts' over the stage plus another at the front of stage provided lighting positions, together with an audience truss flown from the tent's king poles.
The lighting fixtures included 24 Clay Paky Sharpies dotted around all the trusses, 12 GLP Spot Ones and 14 GLP Impression LED washes and a healthy splattering of Atomic strobes. 16 Active Showtec Sunstrips were used for audience lighting, all controlled via a ChamSys MQ200 console operated by Sam Campbell and James Hind. A 6 x 3m upstage screen of Colour Sound's BT6 6 mm LED screen created an animated backdrop and the stage was very nicely framed in a surround of BT12 12mm LED screen, giving the stage a stylish finish.
The Lock Up / Rock stage featured a ground supported back truss and a flown front truss, populated with a minimalist mix of 12 Robe ColorSpot 575E ATs and PARs in open white to give a variety of edgy 'vintage rock' looks referencing the history of the festival. Eight vertically hung Active Sunstrips on the front truss added some portrait format subtlety. This was looked after by Stuart 'Woody' Wood and Martin Dudley using one of Colour Sound's new MagicQ40 compact consoles
The BBC Introducing stage hosted a diverse line up of emerging talent - currently unsigned - who played on the saddlespan structure, together with a few surprises as artists from other stages made impromptu appearances.
The lighting was designed for TV - the three headline acts each day were recorded for broadcast and streamed live on the internet - and also to maximise the low ceiling height and small amount of space available.
Eight Robe MMXs were used highly effectively to project gobos, patterns and texturing onto the roof of the structure. Other lights were 24 x PARs which together with hazers - and a big smile - were operated by Chris Wilkes using a ChamSys MQ Maxi Wing.
Colour Sound replicated the equipment exactly for the same stages on the Leeds site, enabling the great bonus of offering artists with guest LDs complete continuity by swapping their show files between sites.
(Jim Evans)
