Johan was also responsible for the set and visuals design, which allowed him to deliver a coherent and harmonious 'bigger picture' designed for a diversity of artists appearing over the four days - typically with 15 - 20 acts onstage per day - plus a large gospel show on the Sunday.
He worked alongside the festival's creative team, with the starting point for the stage lighting design being the biggest night of the festival - Saturday.
Central to the brief this year was that the organizers didn't want a large central slab of LED upstage, instead they wanted all the drama and impact of the performance to be reinforced by lighting. They also wanted a touch of vintage rock 'n' roll - like Queen and AC/DC back in the 1980s with their outrageously large rigs of PAR cans.
The 17m wide by 12 deep stage offered 12m of headroom from the ground to the grid, a substantial area that needed filling, and Johan decided on six upstage/downstage truss 'fingers' all raked at different angles - for maximum dynamics - to provide the primary lighting positions, plus a front truss and three 'totem' (vertical) trusses down the sides.
Johan's main challenge in lighting the event is not knowing what most of the bands appearing will play. The rig for this event is always designed around basic building blocks which he can layer on top of one another or juxtapose whilst thinking on his feet and feeling the music and flow of the show.
The front truss was rigged with 14 x Robe LEDWash 1200s which provided a powerful general stage wash.
The fingers were each loaded with four Pointes with 44 x LEDWash 600s dotted around for reinforcing the back and mid-stage washes. Another six LEDWash 1200s were added to the upstage sections of each finger, specifically for band washes.
The side totems were rigged with 48 x LEDBeam 100s, used for effects, accenting and punctuation. Another four LEDWash 1200s were rigged on the downstage four totems with two LEDWash 600s each on the back pair.
For control, he used a grandMA2 full size. It's the first time that MGG has been involved in delivering the full technical production supply to the event, on which Johan commented, "It has been fantastic."
(Jim Evans)
