The Spring / Summer touring season is off to another fast start. Festival productions have started back in full swing. New residency shows keep popping up. The live events and entertainment market is once again looking to have another record year in terms of the number of shows and a healthy increase in revenues.
Kenny Chesney kicked off his Sun Goes Down tour for his No Shoes Nation, roaring out of the gate at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. See page 22 for more on this crowd-pleasing production, including a few thoughts on lighting from Chesney himself. Then on page 28, get a look inside the design of Phish’s four night residency—Phish Live at Sphere in Las Vegas—with mind-blowing operatic visuals that melded well with the band’s music and could be manipulated in real-time. On the cover, you see we highlighted Lighting Designer Bobby Grey’s work on this year’s epic 311 Day; turn to page 18 for more insight on lighting this two-day concert.
In lighting for broadcast, we go behind the designs at both the iHeart Radio Music Awards and the CMT Music Awards on pages 32 and 34. We spoke with the lighting and production design teams of both shows to get their take on presenting dynamic award shows for balancing the attending audience experience with the viewers at home. We also have an interesting piece for our In The Volume section on page 16 looking at how the streaming series, Our Flag Means Death, brought a pirate ship on the high seas to life on dry land. Plus we have an insightful interview with Brown Note Productions’ owners Sara and Ryan Knutson about the company’s 20th anniversary on page 46. Over that time, they have grown into a full service support company and have won the Parnelli Hometown Hero award five times.
And as we were going to print and laying out our Tour Logistics section, highlighting companies that are quite literally the infrastructure of any successful tour (page 42) we were contacted with some industry infrastructure breaking news. The team behind the Rock Lititz campus was expanding, developing a new touring and rehearsal & production support campus less than 10 miles from Downtown Nashville. Anticipated to open in 2025, the 515,000 sq. ft. of rehearsal studios, creative offices, and production facilities of various sizes will accommodate varying production specifications for live music and events. The campus will also be home to over 30 industry vendors. Hearing this exciting news and wanting to get more insight into their vision for Rock Nashville, Andrea Shirk, President and CEO of Rock Lititz graciously jumped on to phone for an interview with me, which you can read on page 40.
After seeing the success of Rock Lititz over its decade of existence, and their commitment to serving the wider industry, I think that the large industry hub of production professionals and artists in Nashville will really benefit from the Rock Nashville campus. In the trips I’ve take to Rock Lititz and touring the facilities during THE Conference: Live at Lititz, it’s clear that this model of bringing together all of these different production and rental companies, support services—both for touring and for the touring crews—will be greatly beneficial for everyone. Touring on the road is hard on people, especially as they are away from home and family. If there is a way to provide support and care for the individuals that make up the crews, bands, and everyone that is needed to put together a tour, event, or production, it can only be a positive development, literally. This announcement really speaks to the health of the industry, to a desire to fully support—technically, physically and mentally—productions and people.
So, as the tours and festivals hit the road, travel safe and be sure to take time for your own wellness, physical and mental, as well as finacial. To that end, check out Rachael Bronstein’s Life’s Jam column this month on page 50. As always, feel free to reach out and let me know what you’re working on, or the colleagues you think should be highlighted in PLSN.
Michael S. Eddy
PLSN Editor