It was the first time that the Belfast and Dublin based company has serviced a major stage at the high profile MCD promoted festival, which featured performances (on the Vodafone Stage) by Swedish House Mafia, The Strokes, Deadmau5, Tinie Tempah, The National and Pendulum.
Sean Pagel led the PSI team of seven. He also created a production design for the performing acts. The load-in began on the Thursday before the event opened Friday — a relatively tight timeframe.
The StageCo stage/roof measured 20 meters wide by 16 deep and offered 14 meters headroom, below which PSI sub-hung three ‘festival LX’ trusses and an additional ‘festival artist’ truss, to accommodate the requests of those who were carrying specials and extras. The crew also flew a tab-track truss to mask changeovers and sets being built on the upstage half of the stage during the previous act, together with extra trusses for the Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5 and The Strokes’ gear.
“The trick was designing something that was flexible and diverse enough to deal with everyone’s needs – and a wide selection of musical styles and genres – and be able to easily accommodate artists with specials packages,” said Pagel, adding that specials packages are becoming increasingly common on the festival circuit not just for the headline acts but often for those lower down the bill.
Some of these packages were particularly complex. Friday was the most hectic day for this for the PSI crew, with both The Strokes and the Swedish House Mafia bringing in comprehensive rigs. The Strokes (LD Ed Warren) needed six chevrons flown accurately, along with scrims and a SoftLED backdrop. For the Swedish House Mafia (LD Ian Tomlinson), PSI installed a full cross stage truss downstage for their kabuki reveal and a 15 meter wide upstage truss to facilitate their LED screen.
The whole lighting project entailed the provision of 30 motors and points of rigging to deal with both the house system and everyone’s extras.
Lighting fixtures on the upstage truss included eight Martin Professional MAC 700 Washes, eight MAC 700 Spots and eight Atomic strobes. The mid truss featured 12 Martin MAC 700 Spots and eight Washes, with seven Atomics and 10 2-cell Moles. The front/downstage truss had four MAC 700 Washes, six Robe ColorWash 250E ATs, eight Robe ColorSpot 700s and six 8-cell Moles for audience blinders.
The front lights were used for washing and general stage lighting, the back ones for beam-work, drama, prettiness and general eye-candy looks.
Running along the top of each PA wing were four linear 4-cell Moles and three Robe ColorSpot 1200E AT moving heads, chosen for their brightness. The Robes were fitted with Rain Hats to protect them from the inclement weather. Oxegen usually experiences a wide range of meteorology, with rains typical on at least one day. This year, Friday delivered a classic Irish soaking, followed by sunshine on the Saturday and a dry but overcast day on Sunday.
Pagel credited the Robe Rain Hats are “a brilliant design,” noting how they sit at the right angle to protect the ballast and are properly watertight. The truss clamps are fitted through the Hats, and once the light is secured in place, the Hat seals are flapped over to prevent ingress. There is even a set of flaps that fully weatherize the area that the safety bonds pass through.
The production lighting design left the stage deck clear for the easy passage of rolling risers, sets, screens and specials packages of all descriptions.
PSI also supplied the Strokes floor package, which consisted of six MAC 3000 Spots, six Atomic strobes, six 8-cell Moles, four 3K A&O Falcon Beams and 28 PixelLines, complete with associated distro.
The production lighting console was an Avolites D4 Vision, and all the headliners and some other bands brought their own consoles and hooked in to the house rig.
The crew, including Davy McCready, Brian Crowe, Joe Byrne, Alan McGuinness, Jordan Vient and Emma Frost, worked long hours, especially with all the overnight changovers. Pagel arranged for on-site accommodation in the form of a sleeper bus from Crossland, driven and maintained by George McDaid.
“It was a fantastic event to be involved in, and we were very proud to be part of it,” Pagel said. “MCD really excelled themselves this year in booking some great acts and amazing talent that absolutely rocked.”
For more information, please visit www.productionireland.com.
