International News

MANCHESTER, UK. – HSL supplied lighting for the musical drama, Parade, staged at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. The production features a lighting design by Aaron J. Dootson. Dootson’s lighting was a crucial element in creating the emotion, raw anxiety and political and moral issues of this incisive piece of theatre by Jason Robert Brown, which dramatizes the 1913 trail of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank for the murder and rape of 13 year old employee, Mary Phagan in Atlanta, Georgia.

WROCLAW, Poland  – Wroclaw, Poland marked its role as one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2016 with the Flow, a series of happenings, performances, dance and musical spectacles celebrating the city and its residents.  The multimedia finale of the Flow depicted the history of Wroclaw in four acts.  It was delivered by 300 artists and 45 water craft on the River Odra and watched by some 50,000 residents and visitors. 

BRISTOL, U.K. – The Bristol Summer Series returned for four nights of live music, set against the backdrop of Bristol’s iconic Harborside, from June 22-25. Bristol Summer Series welcomed a host of international acts including headliners Catfish and The Bottlemen, Sigur Rós, The Last Shadow Puppets and James Bay. Once again Utopium was called upon to light up the event as well as designing and delivering architectural lighting to illuminate the Lloyds Amphitheatre building. Utopium’s Colin Bodenham and Jon Newman combined their skills to help create a stunning setting for Metropolis Music, through the supply of a comprehensive lighting production, including newly acquired equipment from Utopium’s extensive inventory.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND —  It was never just about the music with Pink Floyd. True, the psychodelic licks laid down by the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers broke new ground, and yes their music resonates as vibrantly today as it did decades ago – but this band is remembered almost as much for its eye-popping shows as it is for its songs.  Pink Floyd’s legacy of bright, visually powerful stage productions lives on  today in New Zealand, thanks to a tribute band formed (quite fittingly) by a lighting designer who uses the color and intenstity of CHAUVET Professional fixtures to create lightshows that do the group’s legacy proud.

AALSMEER, The Netherlands —More than 100 Robe moving lights, including 40 DL7S Profile “full spectrum” LED fixtures, lit the craziness and mayhem of the latest series of Professor Nicolai & Dr. Beckand, a “mad science “-based TV quiz show recorded in Aalsmeer studios in the Netherlands and broadcast on prime-time Dutch national channel, RTL4. The show was lit by Martin Beekhuizen of lighting and visual design practice Light-H-Art, with lighting equipment supplied by Eventec, a company based at the studios and a technical service provider for the majority of programs created there.

BERLIN, Germany – LD Rick Kay of the CORE Berlin collective joined forces with local rental company Lautwerfer at the end of 2014 to help deliver the inaugural Alternative Fashion Week. The event has since outgrown its origins at local techno club E-Werk and, for the March 2016 event, expanded into Berlin’s Postbahnhof, a former railway station. Kay used  48 of GLP’s new X4 Bar 10 battens — 24 down each side of the stage — for that event.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – For Afrikaans is Groot, a showcase for Afrikaans artists in South Africa backed by record label Coleske Artists, MGG has been serving as the main technical suppliers. LDs Joshua Cutts and Christopher Bolton split the design load for the concerts, staged in Pretoria in the last fall and Cape Town this spring. They designed and programmed the looks on separate grandMA consoles on the same network, using 24 universes to control a rig that included MGG’s Clay Paky A.Leda B-Eyes (K20 and K10), Sharpys, Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s and some Clay Paky Mythos units as well.

BARCELONA, Spain — The 2016 Primavera Sound festival, staged in Barcelona June 1-5, was brightened by Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K 10 fixtures provided by ARA SO.

GLASTONBURY, U.K. – QER SFX provided confetti, streamers, and pyrotechnics for three major headline acts at the muddiest Glastonbury on record. Battling against pouring rain and mud that threatened to swallow flight cases, the company, which has offices in the U.K. and U.S., serviced its biggest Glastonbury festival to date. With trends in special effects rapidly becoming a staple of festival entertainment, the QER SFX team were called upon to supply custom visuals for Foals, Muse, and Adele on both Friday and Saturday night.

PLAYFORD, Australia – Northern Sound System, an educational facility that also offers a 400-capacity venue that can be rented for live performances, recently turned to local installation and production company AJS for a lighting control system update. AJS replaced the aging lighting console with a Road Hog 4 setup from High End Systems.

LINCOLNSHIRE, U.K. – For the 2016 Lost Village music festival, dbn lighting from Manchester supplied lighting, LED screen and crew to the main stage and four other performances spaces. It was the second year of this unique boutique festival staged by Lost Ventures. dbn’s Nick Buckley worked with site and production management coordinators Andy George, Jay Jameson and Ben Atkins.

JOHANNESBURG – For the 2016 Ghoema Awards, which honor achievement in South Africa’s Afrikaans music industry, LD Christopher Bolton from Johannesburg based Keystone Productions used 180 Robe fixtures. The awards event was staged at the Jo’burg Theatre in Braamfontein, the city’s lively downtown area. The show was recorded for Afrikaans TV channel KykNET. Bolton worked closely with stage director Barry Pretorius and camera director Eugene Naidoo on the project.