"We've had a great festival. It's been bigger, better and busier than ever," says Black Light's hire and events manager, Calder Sibbald, who explains that, as always, the company's planning for the festival began early in the year to make sure that it could access the tonnes of equipment and the miles of cabling required.
"This year we thought that a major challenge would be posed by the Olympics which would swallow up a lot of gear," says Sibbald. "However, careful forward planning meant that this wasn't a real problem."
Highlights of Black Light's 2012 Festival included a deal with lighting control company ETC. This saw Black Light supplying all of the Pleasance Theatres venues with ETC consoles. These included the new Gio console. Black Light supplied equipment to all of the company's 23 venues, which included the Pleasance Courtyard. During the Festival this hosted over 500,000 visitors and presented the best in theatre, comedy and live music.
"The Gio lighting control desk is a really powerful bit of kit - lightweight and with a tidy footprint," says Sibbald. "It was just one of our new hire stock items that have proved very popular at this year's festival. Another winner was ETC's range of Source Four LED luminaires."
As well as supplying staging, lighting and trussing to the Pleasance, Black Light also supplied staging and trussing to all C Venues and a full package of equipment to Edinburgh's Dance Base. Other venues and companies it worked with included Brand Engagement, Summer Hall Management, Edinburgh International Festival, Communicado and Frozen Charlotte Theatre Company .
Among the more unusual venues Black Light supplied was the Comedy Barge, which was moored at the terminus of the Union Canal. Black Light also worked outside the city, supplying an outdoor covered stage at the Ferry Fair in South Queensferry.
(Jim Evans)
