International News

BARI, Italy – The Stadio San Nicola, a 58,000-capacity venue used most often for soccer games, recently hosted a Vasco Rossi rock concert organized by Live Nation Italy. Colin Luke, senior project manager at Oswestry, U.K.-based Load Cell Rental, was asked to supply a way of monitoring the stage weights during the build. Luke and Load Cell Rental supplied a 20 cell BroadWeigh system.

LONDON – Blackout continued its longstanding relationship with Somerset House, supplying rigging and drapes for this year’s Summer Series and Film4 Summer Screen events in July and August 2015. Blackout worked alongside production manager Jon Howes, within a team of contractors, who year on year collaborate with the venue’s management and sponsors. The team work to facilitate both events and aid Somerset House’s transformation into an iconic concert setting and then an open air cinema.

HUNTINGDON, U.K. – Colour Sound Experiment continued its frenetic 2015 summer festival season supplying lighting to 12 major stages, 24 smaller performance areas and 8 bars at the 2015 Secret Garden Party (SGP) event staged in Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon, UK. Colour Sound’s crew of 22 were chiefed by James Hinde and Alex Ryan. Robe, Clay Paky, SGM, Chauvet and other fixtures were controlled with Avolites consoles. Colour Sound also provided its own Green Hippo controlled BT-6 6 mm LED screens for the festival.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – For the 10th anniversary edition of Let’s Dance in Sweden, LD Pelle Larsson’s lighting design included 24 Robe Pointe moving lights installed in prominent positions around the dance floor and amidst the orchestra. Pelle Larsson worked on the project with others at LD Sweden including daughter Kim and son Rasmus. Another son, Robin, was overseeing lighting for an antiques quiz show, Gladiators for TV4, which was being recorded elsewhere. Also working for Pelle Larsson’s company, LD Sweden, is Daniel de Sivo.

ENSCHEDE, The Netherlands — At 82 feet wide and 33 feet high, the cyclorama for the Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch Touring Opera)’s touring production of Orphée et Eurydice was always going to be a tall order to light, especially because the company’s limited budget meant they needed to be in and out of the venue in a day. But, with the help of 40 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires with CYC adapters, and some clever rigging choices by chief lighting technician Richard ten Hof, they succeeded where others might fail.

SERIATE, Italy — LD Jo Campana, who has worked with Italian singer Mario Biondi for several years, described how the tour lighting design came about for the artist’s recent theater tour.

HAMPSHIRE, UK – This is the 5^th year running that Utopium has been called upon to supply its lighting and rigging for the creatively themed BoomTown Fair, known for its imaginatively themed cityscape. Utopium provided festival lighting and rigging to ten stages, including the expanded Lion’s Den stage, The Town Centre, The Old Mines, The Jolly Dodger, Crazy Calamities Saloon and The Hidden Woods, as well as providing lighting for all the woodland areas.

WÜRZBURG, Germany — “Festungsflimmern” is an event that combines open air cinema with a historical backdrop, the Marienberg fortress. To ensure that the unique backdrop would not just be looming unnoticed in the dark, Eurolite spots were used to light up the landmark site, home to a cluster of structures built from the 13th to 18th centuries.

MERSEYSIDE, UK – Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) recently supplied LoadGuard hoists to various Worldwide Rigging companies for outdoor touring purposes in festivals such as Glastonbury and Wacken Open Air (pictured here).

DERBYSHIRE, U.K. – Andy Whittaker of HSL credited Avolites’ Titan consoles for keeping the lighting and visual effects flowing at the multi-stage Bloodstock Festival, and a number of visiting LDs chimed in with good things to say about the control setup. All stages featured Avolites desks with Titan at the rock and metal festival, which drew more than 15,000 metal heads to Derbyshire this month.