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Fyre Festival Organizer Arrested on Federal Fraud Charges

Fyre Festival stage. Photo by Crystal Bleecher

Fyre Festival Organizer Arrested on Federal Fraud Charges

NEW YORK – Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland was arrested June 30 on federal charges of wire fraud in connection with what would have been the inaugural two-weekend Fyre Festival, originally slated for April 28-30 and May 5-7 2017 on Grand Exuma Island in the Bahamas. In a statement, federal prosecutors alleged that McFarland “presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company,” Fyre Media, a company McFarland set up for a talent-booking app along with festival promotion.

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ShowTech AVL – A “New/Old” Player in the West

[caption id="attachment_277775" align="alignnone" width="365"]Larry Darling and Brian Konechny [/caption]

VANCOUVER – Industry veterans Brian Konechny and Larry Darling have opened ShowTech AVL.  Both Konechny & Darling worked at Q1 & Epic Productions Technologies then a few years at Solotech Vancouver.  On Oct 29th, becoming business partners, they took over operations at the same location and same phone number, servicing both their local and international clients as AEG Worldwide, Vancouver Canucks, Microsoft Theatre, Civic Theatres, STAPLES Center, City of Burnaby, Centennial Theatre, Grammy Museum, The Novo LA and more.

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Cameo ZENIT B60 Now Available

[caption id="attachment_277772" align="alignnone" width="800"]Cameo ZENIT B60 .jpg[/caption]

NEU-ANSPACH, GERMANY – The Cameo ZENIT® B60 battery-powered PAR spotlight is on its way. The first production run of the two models is already completely sold out. Boasting IP65 classification and W-DMX™ control, this highly professional spotlight is perfect for demanding lighting tasks, both indoors and outdoors. The ZENIT® B60 is available in black (CLZB60BLSD) and chrome (CLZB60CLSD) versions.

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Avolites Ai Media Servers Map Day of the Dead Down Under

[caption id="attachment_277769" align="alignnone" width="600"]Day of the Dead Down Under mapped[/caption]

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Australian audio-visual production company, IKONIX, recently used one of their Avolites Ai RX8 Media servers to video map a Cinco de Mayo event (Day of the Dead) at Melbourne’s top trending event space, Peninsula. The Mexican-themed event marked the end of the five-day 37th Australian Dental Association (ADA) Congress 2017 with 700 guests in attendance. 

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Glastonbury’s New Ribbon Tower Stands Out With CHAUVET Professional Mavericks

[caption id="attachment_277766" align="alignnone" width="800"]Glastonbury Tower lit with Mavericks[/caption]

GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND – This year’s Glastonbury Festival was “the best yet,” according to organizer Emily Eavis.  It was easy to see why, as a star studded procession of artists from Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters to The Sleaford Mods, The XX and Katy Perry appeared on its stages. 

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Hawthorn Invests in Robert Juliat Followspots

[caption id="attachment_277763" align="alignnone" width="800"]Hawthorn uses Robert Juliat spots[/caption]

UK – “Robert Juliat is the gold standard of followspots and whenever we’re looking to add more to our inventory, it’s our go-to brand.” So says David Slater, Group Director of Hire for the award-winning, UK-based technical production company, Hawthorn. The company has just expanded its inventory of followspots with a significant purchase of fixtures from Robert Juliat’s exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions, opting to add to their stock of 2500W HMI Cyrano long-throw units and to make a new investment purchase of the LED 300W Roxie. 

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Fineline Feels the Love for Martin by HARMAN Face 5

[caption id="attachment_277760" align="alignnone" width="800"]Fineline makes fine use of Martin gear[/caption]

LONDON – Bristol-based Fineline Lighting proves the wisdom of its investment in Martin by HARMAN’s VDO Face 5 HB LED panels by deploying impressive media displays on the two main stages at the recent Love Saves The Day Festival, held locally in the city’s Eastville Park. Specialists in production lighting and visual displays, Fineline has regularly serviced the festival’s requirements for promoters Team Love — again rigging the two premier stages at the sell-out festival and providing kit for the subsidiary stages.

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Robe Catches the Starlight Classics

[caption id="attachment_277757" align="alignnone" width="800"]Starlight Classics 2017[/caption]

SOUTH AFRICA -The most recent RMB Starlight Classics concert, staged at the beautiful, Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa … was lit by Chris Bolton of Keystone Productions … with a little help from some Robe moving lights! It was Chris’s second year in the creative hot seat – working directly for organizers Jam Events. Last year he and Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier produced a lighting co-design – and the two are now partners in their brand new visual design venture, Collective Works – however when Starlight came up this year, Josh had other commitments, so Chris added the lighting magic working with his assistant Jade Manicom.

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Kinesys Stages Demo Day in Canada

[caption id="attachment_277754" align="alignnone" width="800"]Kinesys Apex Drive Front[/caption]

TORONTO – Automation specialist Kinesys is staging its first product awareness demonstration in Canada – on July 8th for one day only – to make people aware that Kinesys products have ‘officially landed’ in Canada and are available for immediate rental from Drifter Rigging. The Demo Day is a collaboration between David Bond, who runs Kinesys’ US operation and Mark “Drifter” Desloges from Drifter Rigging, a new rental operation recently established in Toronto, with a selection of Kinesys kit. It will be held in a warehouse facility at 100 Carson St. Unit A Etobicoke, Toronto, M8W 3R9.

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Morris Highlights Hall & Oates 2017 Tour with Mozarts and IMS

[caption id="attachment_277751" align="alignnone" width="533"]Jesper Luth lights Hall and Oates[/caption]

LOS ANGELES – Daryl Hall and John Oates kicked off their 2017 summer tour last month at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The whirlwind tour across America’s heartland includes 30 dates through July.  The lighting design team of Matt Geasey and Jesper Luth specified 140 Solaris Mozart fixtures, as well as 600 IMS Mk2 RGBW lamps on 12 110-foot festoon strings, all provided to the tour by Morris of Nashville. 

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U2 Celebrates a 1987 Classic and Revives the Joshua Tree Album with Summer World Tour

[caption id="attachment_277746" align="alignnone" width="743"]U2 plays Joshua Tree[/caption]

LITITZ, PA. -Known for their very intricate, out-of-this-world stadium shows, U2 honors the 30th anniversary of their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, by taking a robust, cinematic set and the albums legacy hits on the road for a stadium tour across North America and Europe. After reuniting with their fans at iHeartRadio’s Music Festival and Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, the Irish rockers cemented the idea to celebrate the Joshua Tree album with the Joshua Tree Tour, making it the first time the band has ever taken an entire album from their back catalog on tour.

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