The event featured a host of international DJ's and bands including main stage double headliners Fatboy Slim and Kasabian, and took place at the regular Creamfields site in Daresbury near Warrington.
It is the seventh year that HSL has supplied lighting to the festival, which was co-ordinated by Mike Oates in the office and crew chief Simon Lynch on site. Oates comments, "This year, being a special year, we really concentrated on ensuring that production values were the highest yet. We had a strong team on site who really made it happen very smoothly despite challenging weather and a tight schedule."
The Main Stage was a 20m wide by 15m deep Vertech roof supplied by Star Events. The screen for Fatboy Slim's set on Saturday night - supplied by XL Video - weighed six tonnes and was flown 5m from the downstage edge of the stage. HSL worked closely with Star Events on the logistics of rigging all the production lighting also needed for his show from the same area of the roof.
Fatboy's lighting was designed by Steven Abbiss, who additionally oversaw the Main Stage production lighting for HSL. He utilised 26 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs and 24 Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs for moving lights, 10 Martin Professional Atomic strobes, eight 8-lite Moles and 16 JTE PixelLines, brought in specifically as specials for Fatboy. All this was controlled off an Avolites Diamond 4 console.
For the Sunday night, all the Fatboy lighting was stripped out and LD Jonny Gaskell brought in Kasabian's entire touring rig - also being supplied by HSL.
To ensure this intense overnight changeover went smoothly and seamlessly, the HSL crew pre-rigged Kasabian's three trusses which included additional metalwork in the roof to hang Gaskell's six Stealth screens (also supplied by XL).
Lighting wise, Kasabian used 16 High End Showguns - eight on the floor and eight in the air; 10 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs and eight Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs; 12 i-Pix BB7s, just purchased by HSL, positioned on floor-based pipes; eight BB16s, four rigged in the air and four on the floor; 40 2-lite Moles framing the screens and scattered across all the trusses; 12 ETC Source Fours, eight on the front truss and four on the mid truss and 26 Atomic strobes. Gaskell ran this from a WholeHog II and a Wing.
(Jim Evans)
