Things went equally well from an audio point of view. Rick Bailey of RMPA, who was responsible for sound on the acoustic stage, had a particularly successful festival. Headline acts included veteran rocker Robert Plant, the Waterboys and talented young Irish accordion player, Sharon Shannon. Bailey opted for his conventional Electro-Voice X-Array PA configuration with a total of two Xds subs, four Xb bass cabinets, two Xn near-field and two Xf long-throw cabinets per side to cover the 5,000 capacity tent, driven by P3000 amplifiers.
The event also gave RMPA the opportunity to put the new Midas Legend 3000 console through its paces for the first time. According to Rick Bailey the engineers were suitably impressed. "None of them had seen one before, so they were all eager to get their hands on it," reported Bailey. "Fortunately it lived up to Midas's usual reputation and performed fantastically well. Everyone found it really easy to use, and also commented on how clean it sounded and how responsive the EQ was; just as good as on the more expensive models in fact, so all in all it was a great success, as indeed was the whole system. The X-Array did its usual sterling job despite some awkwardly placed pillars and a last minute change of shape for the tent which we hadn't anticipated, but we still achieved excellent coverage. The entire system performed faultlessly all weekend, so everyone was pleased."
(Lee Baldock)
