MANCHESTER, U.K. – DBN Lighting supplied lighting design, equipment and crew for the main stage and two other tented areas for the two-day Parklife music festival, staged at 100-year-old Platt Fields Park and organized by The Warehouse Project and Ear To The Ground. Nick Walton managed the project for DBN and did the production design for the main stage, which featured Ian Brown on Friday and Friendly Fires on Saturday. The sellout crowds totalled 15,000 Friday and 20,000 Saturday.
Walton's design was largely based around the lighting spec and design for Ian Brown by LD Fletch from Colour Sound Experiment. The rig then morphed into a different-looking show for Friendly Fires the next day.
The crew sub hung trusses from the 18-meter Orbit-style stage. The back truss was then rigged with 14 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 300s and 12 Alpha Spot 1200 HPEs, along with a selection of 2 and 4-way Moles and Martin Atomic strobes on drop bars.
The front truss had Alpha Wash 575s for over-stage wash coverage and Alpha Spot 1200 HPEs for effects and texturing, more Atomics for effects and 8-lite Moles facing into the audience for crowd illumination.
On the floor were six 3-meter-vertical trussing towers, each with a Martin MAC 250 on top and four 5-way ChromaQ dB4 LED battens. These were run through a Hippotizer digital media server, triggered from an Avolites Pearl Tiger console. The main stage lighting was run from an Avolites Pearl Expert.
On Saturday night, the rig changed for the Friendly Fires, whose lighting was operated by Mark Video.
The orientation of the dB4 battens was flipped by 90 degrees, from horizontal to vertical, and they added more 2-lites and Atomics. Video was looking for some retro disco effects, so DBN came up with Griven Sky Roses which have a bright split beam effect and are a reasonable size that fitted well onto the stage, plus four Studio Due CS4 bars, which were also strapped to the towers.
Also added for Friendly fires were eight MAC 250s on the floor. The same consoles were used for control.
Over at the Big Top stage – a four king pole tent – DBN rigged a four-sided box truss between the four poles with a ground-supported rear truss behind the stage end.
Lighting fixtures included 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 300 HPEs and eight Alpha Spot 575 HPEs, six Atomics and three DV3000 strobes, plus generics in the form of PARs, Source Fours and 2-lite Moles.
LED fixtures included two iPix BB16 mega wash lights, six i-Pix BB4s and three BB7 spot versions, all of which were onstage for big bold blocks of color.
The rear truss also contained four Clay Paky Alpha Spot 575s. The side of the box truss nearest the stage was used for front lighting positions, while the rest of the rig was used for the dance floor and around the rest of the tent. Eight Alpha Beam 300s were also on the stage floor.
A mix of DJs and live performers entertained the crowds. Vitalic presented their V-Mirror Live show, which involves a V-shaped three-meter-high mirrored LED screen, complemented by DBN's house lighting rig. Other artists included Simian Mobile Disco, Fake Blood, Andro and Mixhell.
The lighting desk was an Avo Pearl 2008, operated by a combination of Nick Walton and Ibs.
For the Hacienda/Now Wave Stage, a smaller two-poled tent featuring Kele, Four Tet, Steve Mason, Errors and others, Walton went old-school with a more generic rig including eight bars of 6 PARs and High End Trackspots – 10 of which were dusted off, serviced and dotted around the stage.
"They have a definite time and a place and are well worth keeping hold of – we love them," said Walton. They also used six MAC 250s on the dance floor, the lighting for which was on a truss hung between the two poles. Control came via an Avo Pearl Tiger run by Ed Marriot for both days.
Walton worked with three other DBN crew members to rig lighting in all three areas, and the challenge was making everything flexible and practical enough to be changed around when needed to cater for the needs of a wide variety of artists.
For more information, please visit www.dbn.co.uk.
