It's the fourth year that the Belfast and Dublin based company has been the festival's lighting contractor - since it started in fact - and this year the event was expanded to 10 days, showcasing a line of leading international artists including 30 Seconds To Mars, Tiesto, Primal Scream, Dizzee Rascal, Beady Eye, Elbow, Tinie Tempah and many more.
PSI was working for the event's co-producers MCD and Shine, and a production design for the stage at the 6000 capacity site was created by PSI's Sean Pagel. For the first night the rig was built to the spec of headliners 30 Seconds To Mars. It was then changed to the festival production design overnight and remained with that rig until the penultimate night, when a complete re-rig and turnaround took place to accommodate Tiesto's lighting requirements.
The stage was a 40ft SAM truck stage from the Star Events Group, which has a good load bearing roof, under which were flown 3 straight cross stage trusses and one tab truss just upstage of the mid truss. This allowed all the opening acts to have use of the front and mid truss lighting for their sets. The tabs were then opened to reveal the set and back drop - if applicable - of the headliners.
Stage space was tight, with absolutely no room for any side stage storage, so anything needing to remain onstage had to be concealed by drapes - for which PSI provided a complete, set including a full back-of-stage black.
The moving lights were all Robe, with eight ColorSpot 700E ATs and eight ColorWash 700E ATs on the back truss, together with five Martin Professional Atomic strobes; 12 x ColorSpot 700E ATs, eight ColorWashes, six Atomics and 10 x 2-cell Moles on the mid; and 10 x Robe ColorWash 250E ATs as specials on the front truss, together with four Atomics and six 8-cell Moles. Five cube 4-cell moles each side on the PA wings were used for audience illumination.
Six spare wash moving lights were available for floor specials if needed, but the basic idea was to keep the floor as clean and clear as possible in terms of the 'house' rig.
The festival lighting console was an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision, running the latest software, and all the headliners either used that or brought in their own consoles, except Tiesto, for which PSI supplied a Chamsys MagicQ 200.
(Jim Evans)
