The 11-day festival, which brought together contemporary dance, visual arts, music and theatre in interactive installations, exhibitions and performances, featured more than 200 international artists, and will be held annually for the next three years with a view to extend into the future. The occasion was marked by the procurement of a new ATMe haze generator to complement The Lowry's 15-year-old MDG Atmosphere.
MDG's ATMe is an evolution of the Atmosphere which is a long-term industry standard. ATMe has an added degree of controllability which attracted the attention of The Lowry's head of technical services, Dave Woodward, and was supplied by MDG UK complete with a portability kit.
The ATMe was brought into use for the first time on the opening night launch party, where it helped complete the transition of the main stage into a night club, and the truck loading bay into a chillout zone and bar. Dave Woodward explains, "We were able to fill the space with good quality haze, then simply control the levels from the console throughout the night."
For the remainder of Week 53, the ATMe was positioned in the theatre's Scene Dock, which had been turned into a fourth theatre for the course of the festival. The dock was filled with haze every day before opening the doors so, Woodward revealed, "the public were able to observe the space as an installation piece of art with a moody feel."
Since Week 53, MDG's ATMe has been kept busy, deployed on a number of live band events and, most recently, creating atmosphere for the National U Dance Festival weekend.
(Jim Evans)
