This followed on from PSI's work for organisers Féile an Phobail for their Spring Festival and Comedy Festivals earlier in the year. PSI's Sean Pagel says, "It was a great pleasure to work on this event and come onboard right at the start. This gave us the chance to demonstrate how investment in production values can really enhance the look and feel of an event."
PSI designed and supplied lighting for The Marquee in Bank Square in central Belfast and for all the action taking place in Andersonstown Leisure Centre as well as for a selection of other one off venues including schools, community centres, youth clubs and a monastery.
The physical challenges of installing the lighting rig in the marquee included a low ceiling height, no flying points and having to run off three-phase 63 Amp power.
The production design was created by Sean Pagel and Joe Byrne and based around the specs of the different bands appearing - who included Damien Dempsey, Everlast, Michelle Shocked, Drunken Balordi and the Neville Staple Band.
The front truss was flown from the tent structure, but had restricted weight loadings. Bars of 6 PARs were rigged on it giving front wash coverage of the stage, complete with one audience facing bar. The back truss - on wind up stands - was rigged with four Martin MAC 250 Kryptons and more 6-way PAR bars.
The stage was about 30ft wide by 12ft deep and therefore limited for space once bands were set up, so four Robe ColorWash 250s were squeezed into any available gaps.
PSI added a Chroma-Q ColorWeb 125 backdrop, which made a difference in boosting the depth and perspective of the stage as well as looking funky and interesting, rather than having a black void at the end of the tent. "It was a real case of using the available space imaginatively and thoughtfully, rather than just rigging a set of lights that would do the job," says Pagel.
Joe Byrne operated the Avolites Pearl Expert lighting desk, with a Hippo Express media server used to run video content for the ColorWeb.
The Andersonstown Leisure Centre is a standard sports hall space with pre-determined rigging points that dictate where the trussing has to fly, so PSI put in a 12m wide by 10m deep box truss over the stage. A 12m audience truss was rigged in the auditorium, complete with nine Cantata fresnels for house lighting.
An eclectic variety of artists appeared here including Lenny Henry, who headed up the Comedy Night, Celtic fusion band The Peatbog Faeries from the Isle of Skye, The Wonderstuff, Cornershop and a glam pop blast from the 1980s with ABC, so the lighting had to be very flexible.
On the back truss of the box were eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and six Robe ColorWash 700E ATs - used for powerful beam effects - and the backdrop of 12 x 6m of ColorWeb 250. Four PixelPAR 90s toned the truss, and there were also four Atomic strobes on the back.
The side trusses each supported a leg of ColorWeb 250 upstage of the PA arrays which were also hung off the box truss. Together with the backdrop, this framed the stage in ColorWeb.
On the front of the box were six Robe ColorWash 250E ATs, four 4-cell moles, four PixelPARs, 10 Source Four Profiles for key lighting and a single Robe ColorSpot 700E AT for projecting a custom glass gobo of the event logo.
Sean Pagel and Joe Byrne operated the lighting, using an Avo Diamond 4 console and a Hippo Stage to drive the ColorWeb.
(Jim Evans)
