The festival, which drew over 25,000 people to Connecticut's sprawling Seaside Park (it covers over two miles of shoreline on the Long Island Sound), is a far cry from the small get-together that Ken Hays and a group of friends held 20 years ago to honour Jerry Garcia, following the death of the Grateful Dead's legendary frontman. Hays, who still runs Gathering of the Vibes, recently told an interviewer that he first thought the festival would be "just be a one-time gathering of the Deadhead community on the East Coast".
How happily wrong he was. The mellow festival struck a chord with Deadheads (aka Grateful Dead fans) and the band alike. Every surviving member of the group has performed at Gathering of the Vibes over the years, as have a galaxy of other stars like Gov't Mule; Umphrey's McGee; Elvis Costello; Crosby, Stills and Nash; John Fogerty; James Brown; Jane's Addiction; The Black Crowes; Buddy Guy; Jimmy Cliff; Primus; George Clinton and P-Funk; Bruce Hornsby; moe.; Branford Marsalis and more.
The JDI Productions team had a special incentive this year lighting the Main Stage, knowing that 2015 represented the historically significant 20th anniversary of the festival.
JDI's Gathering of the Vibes lighting team, which included crew chief and dimmer tech Freddy Thompson and lighting directors Peter Therrien and Mike Gionfriddo in addition to Iorfida, called on the intense output of 24 Legend 230SR Beams to create and maintain a high level of energy on the main stage, even during the early performances that took place before darkness.
"The 230s are so bright, sharp, and colorful that they were huge to have during the daytime hours of the festival," said Therrien. "Even in the bright sun, haze getting blown where you don't want it, they still provided a great beam and gobo that could be seen and allowed for some great looks."
At the heart of the festival rig were six 10'x 20.5"x20.5" truss ladder towers in a mirror image on either side of the stage along the upstage backdrop. These towers were arranged in a staggered formation running from lower to higher as they approached centre stage. Each tower had four Legend 230SR Beams hung in a standard vertical format off pipes that were attached to the truss. "Hanging the beams this way helped to create what we called a wall of beams," said Thompson. "Thanks to their intense output, these fixtures had no issue shooting out and over the artists to help create a huge effect."
For added colour and accenting, the JDI team hung a COLORdash Par-Quad 7 RGBA fixture in each of the staggered truss structures. "The Par-Quads added a nice colour tone effect," said Iorfida, who notes that the towers were also accented with LED panels and strobes.
With over 20 acts performing on the Main Stage, including multi-Grammy winner Wilco, popular UK alternative artists Electron, the legendary guitarist Warren Haynes and Dark Star Orchestra among others, the lighting rig had to offer the flexibility to support widely different musical styles.
(Jim Evans)
