It was the first time that Colour Sound has worked for the event, and it was also the first outing for Colour Sound's new BT12 12 mm pitch LED screen, a new lightweight product that has been designed and manufactured exactly to their spec.
The investment is to cater for the growing demand for visual and scenic display surfaces that are becoming increasingly integrated into 'lighting designs'. For Secret Garden, a total of 210 panels of the BT12 screen was supplied by Colour Sound to Immersive, the festival's site wide video design team headed by Mark Calvert.
The Colour Sound crew of 14 was led on site by Jon Rickets and the project co-ordinated in the office by Steve Marley. They deployed 3 trucks of lighting and visuals kit around the site, covering the main stage and 32 other assorted stages, areas and spaces, all of which required various degrees of illumination.
They also worked closely with secret Garden's production managers Peter Tilling and James Brennon, which was "A great collaborative and highly rewarding experience," says Rickets.
A production lighting design was created for the main stage to satisfy all the headlining acts - The Mystery Jets (Friday), Leftfield (Saturday) supported by Blondie and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas (Sunday). Colour Sound also supplied full specials packages for Leftfield and Blondie.
The stage was an 18m orbit structure, below which five sub trusses were hung, some of which were hinged and shaped to the roof to maximise space.
The festival design utilised 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1500 HPEs, six Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and 16 GLP 120 RZ Zoom LED washes for moving lights, along with 10 Martin Professional Atomic strobes, large quantities of 2 and 4-lite blinders and 12 Sunstrip Actives, all controlled through an Avolites Pearl Expert with a touch screen. A Chamsys MagicQ 300 was also supplied by Colour Sound, with Blondie the only act bringing in their own console, which was a grandMA light.
A giant dragonfly - approximately 15ft high and 30 long - was built on a pontoon in the middle of the lake, and spectacularly ignited on Saturday night as part of the fireworks and pyro extravaganza, which is a centrepiece of the event. Underneath the dragonfly was a floating dancefloor area, for which Colour Sound supplied wave and ripple effects and colour-changing LEDs for the dragonfly eyes.
Other stages of note included Where the Wild Things Ar' which was lit with six GLP RZ Zooms, seven Martin MAC Entours and a scattering of PARs, controlled by an Avolites Tiger.
The Remix Stage featured eight Sunstrip Actives, six Robe ColorSpot 575E ATs, six ColorWash 575E ATs and four Robe ColorWash 700E ATs. Performances included an energetic set by The Whip whose LD, Kesker McClure was also working as one of the Colour Sound event crew.
Says Rickets, "It was a fabulous event to work on in a very friendly atmosphere with people who really care enormously about aesthetics, presentation and the importance of offering high production values for the greater enjoyment of their audience."
(Jim Evans)
