Why change the format of your events?
We wanted to create events which would work within the overall festival calendar and still allow us to focus on our organization and promotion. We wanted to produce top-notch events that gave the public good, free entertainment that they couldn't get anywhere else. We were careful to place our three main shows across the summer months, starting in May in Manchester and finishing in September in Cardiff with the 'One Big Weekend' shows, and a 'One Big Sunday' in Leicester in between. We also produced or had some form of presence at around 20 other major events this summer.
How did the concept for One Big Weekend come about?
One Big Weekend was developed as the event that would best serve the listeners who love live dance events. We made a conscious decision to ticket the shows and work to a 10,000 capacity.
How do you evaluate the change in format?
We have looked at what came out as a live event, coupled with what we produced in terms of live broadcast material. Manchester was a tough situation (the first day, featuring dance music, was cancelled due to inclement weather), but we made the right decision and the second day, with the bands, was a fantastic event. Cardiff was definitely a huge success, it produced loads of great live material for broadcast and it really came across that the whole weekend was about live music for real fans.
We receive a lot of direct feedback from the audiences and it's all been really positive. We set out to, and I believe succeeded, in creating a festival atmosphere. We're not in the business of trying to create a full-blown festival, but this had all the best components of one - it was as close as we intend to get. I think housing the gigs in a giant Kayam Marquee created an atmosphere that was unique to Radio 1 this year. Lots of festivals use marquees for secondary stages, but we wanted to up the production values for our shows and create something a bit special in the marquee environment.
For the look we brought in Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions. Neil McDonald [production manager] and I knew his work from the Super Furry Animals tour and liked what we saw so we invited him in. We gave him a very broad brief, as we did with all of the production team, so they could steer their own areas of expertise. Electric Fly created all of the visuals relayed by the modular Unitek MS25 LED screens 'scattered' around the stage, supplied by Screenco. He brought in Bandit Lites to supply the lighting (mostly Martin Professional fixtures), which he operated from behind a new Martin Maxxyz console.
We brought in Skan PA Hire to do the PA - one of the best festival sound companies, in my opinion. Chris Fitch, the company's MD, was also stage manager on the shows. Skan has just become the seventh member of L-Acoustics V-Dosc network in the UK and this was the first big music event where they used the V-Dosc system, adding dV-Dosc speakers for outfills, two Midas Heritage consoles providing control. Skan also used XTA DP224 and DP226 crossovers controlled via XTA's Audiocore system.
How did the staging elements come together?
Pete Holdich and the guys in the Star Events Group [the company born from the merger of Star Hire and Star Rigging] have worked with Radio 1 for several years, providing stages and rigging services. This included the pyramid stage we took all over the country this year and the huge One Big Sunday stage.In Cardiff, the VerTech structure was a 20
