Robe catches the beat at City 65 festival
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Craig Burridge was asked to co-ordinate the Main Stage production and lighting design for the one-day event by organisers Michael Spinks and Rachel Mason from City 65 Music Pte Ltd. The main stage line-up featured five diverse bands, three playing in daylight and the final two in the dark, for which Craig used 50 Robe fixtures - 24 x Linees, 10 x ColorStrobes, six PixelPATTs and 10 x LEDWash 600s - positioned prominently on the rig.
The venue is managed by the National Parks, and there are some strict rules and regulations designed to protect the environment. No production elements can be within 2m of any tree, so the 9m wide by 8m deep stage was allocated a space between two, right in front of a ‘heritage tree’ which “made a fantastic backdrop” explained Craig.
He had a free creative hand with the design with a few important prerequisites including that it was a functional and practical space for the bands and audio / backline crews to achieve quick changeovers. This meant leaving the stage floor relatively clear.
In addition to this, his aesthetic goal was to provide three distinct but related visual themes that would work for the diverse genres of music covered by the final three bands on the bill - hard rock / metal, indie jazz and progressive rock respectively.
The strong natural tree setting also played a part in the look of the stage. Craig wanted to keep the sides of the stage uncovered and feature the intricate branches and leaf formations, pulling them into the picture. This approach also helped the stage to appear much bigger!
The four-legged ground support was trimmed at 7m to maintain rectangular form to the stage, and 2 and 3m drop bars were used on the background support truss and 2 metre ones on the mid ground support truss, which enabled lights to be more dynamically positioned. Each drop bar was rigged with two Robe Linees and one pixelPATT.
Three LEDWash 600s were on both the mid and front trusses, with two more each side on the downstage edges of the floor, utilised as the main band washes.
Four Robe ColorStrobes on the front truss made highly effective blinders and Craig positioned two more on the ground behind the stage to illuminate the heritage tree.
Craig operated all the lighting himself using a WholeHog FullBoar3.
For third on the bill metal band Terminal Cry, who played in daylight, he chose all-white lighting with lots of beams created from this punchy selection of fixtures.
They were followed by co-headliners, neo-vintage soul band The Steve McQueens which were lit primarily in pastel shades. By now it was getting darker so the Linees and PATTs were used to fill the space with abstract flowing shapes that morphed and moved with the groove.
Co-headliners Addy Cradle closed the show with an intensive prog rock performance which Craig lit with lots of saturated colours onto the tree and from the flown LEDWash 600s, with the floor-based LEDWash 600s contrasting in warm or cold whites, while the Linees produced big asymmetric static looks interspersed with pixel chases and layers of different shapes.
(Jim Evans)
