The festival was established five years ago by Rupert Barksfield and Lynda Colborne - as a garden party in a country home attended by 400 people. Since then it has changed its name from the Mini Chill (allied to the larger and long-established Big Chill Festival), and also its site to Kentwell Hall in East Anglia. As a result, this year they were able to cap their attendance at 3,000 (with acts like Jon Kennedy, The Cuban Bros and Penguin Café Orchestra headlining, along with James Yuill and Tom Eno).
In its quest to provide aid for Brazil's street children, Barksfield says the Festinho management team has been indebted to Harman for its continued support on an increasing basis. After running an early Soundcraft Vi6 (along with JBL PA and monitor rig) three years ago, this time around monitor engineer Pete Fletcher also had a Soundcraft Vi4, while his Studiocare colleague, John Holmes, handled most of the FOH mixes on the Soundcraft Vi6.
Also helping the event to swell the funds of the ABC Trust (Action for Brazil's Children) were JBL, which provided a VRX system (VRX932LA's and SRX718S subs) and SRX712M stage monitors, along with Crown, who powered the system with I-Tech IT-6000 amplifiers. The inventory also included AKG C414 condenser mics and BSS AR-133 active DI boxes - with all equipment supplied by Studiocare Professional Audio.
Now operating as the event's technical production manager, Rupert Barksfield comments: "We are very proud of the support we have received from Soundcraft in different capacities over the last three years; they have gone to the ends of the earth to help us from the very beginning.
"The latest version of the Vi6 is unbelievable - it's a breath of fresh air in the digital console world. Any guest engineer who has not used it before requires just a five-minute walk-through."
(Jim Evans)
