AARHUS, Denmark – Moscow celebrates its birthday with an International Military Music Festival, “Spasskaya Tower,” at Red Square. Martin lighting played its part in the event, which required two lighting designers to handle all the aspects of it for TV and an Internet audience.
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“Spasskaya Tower” 2011: Honor and Military Virtue with Martin Lights
MAC fixtures illuminate 4th International Military Music Festival on Red Square
AARHUS, Denmark – In early September, when Moscow celebrates its birthday, the traditional International Military Music Festival, “Spasskaya Tower,” takes place on Red Square. This year the event was punctuated by an honorary salute of Martin dynamic color.
The grand event is a parade featuring the Russian State Honor Guard, as well as leading Russian and foreign military music bands, an important intercultural event that attracts a huge TV and Internet audience. Among the musical military units participating in 2011 were bands from Great Britain, China, Jordan, Norway, Pakistan and Mexico, among other countries.
Two leading Russian rental companies, Lightmaster and Pro Light Service, were engaged to light the festival, each of which supplied a cadre of Martin fixtures. Two lighting designers were employed as well. Representing Lightmaster was William Hamadache of France, who served as Lighting Designer–in-Chief for the festival. Sergey Vorontsov, lighting designer at Pro Light Service, was responsible for the stage and tribune illumination.
“Sergey was ‘hand in glove’ with the French designer,” comments Alexander Kolotilov, project manager at Pro Light Service. “First he attended several try outs, watched the show and recorded the scene sequence. After that he created a lighting scenario that was a logical extension of the main theme.” The lighting designers controlled the event from separate consoles yet acted simultaneously in close connection with TV operators.
The “Spasskaya Tower” event was simple from a technical point of view but extensive nonetheless. Lightmaster delivered 66 MAC 2000 Washes, 40 of which were installed between the tribunes and used to project original effects when the military units marched on Red Square. The parade lighting also emphasized the colors of the various nations involved. Additionally, 16 MAC 2000 Washes were placed in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral and 10 fixtures behind the tribunes.
“Spasskaya Tower” is also a major television broadcast, therefore both LDs took into account the requirements of TV directors when choosing lighting equipment. The main stage required bright, high-quality lighting in the morning and powerful MAC 2000 Washes stepped in to effectively meet the challenge. When the official ceremony was over the fixtures continued their work at a special celebration concert.
In the evening, during the main event, 82 MAC 2000 Washes, 8 MAC III Profiles and 8 MAC III Performances installed behind the tribunes on trusses and fixed on special Layher towers were used for back light with some providing front light onto the opposite tribunes. MAC 600 wash lights from Pro Light Service were also employed to provide lighting effects on a separate stage where the master of ceremony announced the participants.
“We have been working with Martin fixtures for a long time and we are really satisfied with them, says Alexander Kolotilov. “We chose the MAC III for the Spasskaya Tower Festival as we needed extremely bright moving heads. Imagine – we had to cover the vast territory of Red Square with light and throw beams from one end to the other. We were really happy with the result. We did not have any problems with fixtures during the installation or the events. The only challenging thing for us was that the equipment was operating outdoors so to protect them we had to place them under special covers.”
