CPL supplies Glastonbury’s Arcadia Pangea
- Details
Technical production specialist CPL continued its working relationship with Arcadia by supplying six Barco UDX-4K32 projectors with fibre optic signal and control infrastructure for 360° projections that were integral to the show based around the 140t centrepiece of Pangea.
Arcadia celebrated its 10th year at Glastonbury, having previously implanted their 50t spider stage in the hearts and minds of fans for the best part of a decade.
Arcadia’s structures are built entirely in scrapped and repurposed materials. The crane, a graceful artefact of industrial architecture, was transplanted from Avonmouth Docks in Bristol, just 30 miles down the road, sourced after Pip, Bertie and the team scoured scrapyards worldwide for suitable materials.
Constructed in Somerset, it had resided and worked at Avonmouth since its installation in 1975, more recently rendered obsolete by larger capacity lifting kit. The ley lines of Worthy Farm will be its new home for at least the next four years.
Below the crane control room - which moves the jib - a reconditioned radar dome has been added to the massive steel legs of the structure, and the DJ booth is below that, about 10ft above crowd level.
The projectors were positioned on six 10m-high purpose-built towers located 40 metres away from the radar dome in weatherised hides.
All the video content for the Pangea shows was created by Joe Crossley from digital art collective Astral Projekt alongside Heckler, and programmed into Arcadia’s own AI media server by Ciaran Abrams.
CPL also supplied an array of their 1.2m ROE pixel strips for internally lighting the DJ booth, and dispatched three crew - Mike Radford, Robin Emery and Anthony Condon - for the weekend to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
On-site, they worked closely with Arcadia’s production manager Dorian Cameron-Marlow.
CPL’s Dickie Burrow comments: “It was fantastic working on this new Arcadia project. We all loved the spider and this next phase is another great testament to their imagination, craziness and huge inspiration. The ideas are always awesomely ambitious but totally cool, and it was amazing to be part of this show and another great Glastonbury.”
(Jim Evans)
