Festival Help

Hey all,

I've done festivals, and Ive carried Hogs on tour, but I have a couple of months coming up where we'll be doing one offs and festivals intermixed.

Il probably have some led pars elation impressions and a road hog full boar.

Basically Im wondering what the best way to make a great show for my client at festivals. I understand that some festivals will be different and some may not be using HOG.

Assuming I carry a small package (some elations and LED PARs) that is set up for super fast change overs.

What, of the below, is practical or common:

1. Getting the stage plot and address sheet ahead of time and cloning fixtures and patching ahead of time? (making positions would take forever with larger stages that have 30 movers). I would need a spare DMX line to FOH then too.

2. merging my show with the festivals show on the festival console? just record their positions and colors into my pallets and (but then my playbacks wouldn't have the festivals fixtures in them.

Or is it a combination or am I way off?

Thanks
  • 0
    Hi,
    I think you need to figure out what you are trying to achieve first before you get into the technical aspect of the festivals.
    -Do you intend to program a simple busk show or program a different page/cuelist for every song?
    I think if you start with a clear idea of what you are trying to do every night and what needs to be done it's going to make your approach to the show a lot more straightforward.
    I've seen some fantastic festival shows that had no fixture movement and were totally based on intensity and colour and I've seen other shows that had 50 or 60 positions with hundreds of moving lights so i think trying to figure out what your show needs is a must.

    -Perhaps try programming a show containing
    30 x Wash Fixture's
    30 x Spot Fixtures
    Some strobes
    an LED fixture
    some desk channels
    your touring extras

    create fixture numbers for everything so perhaps
    All spots 101-130
    All Wash 201-230
    All strobes 301-310
    All LED 401-450
    Desk channel 1-72,
    And break it down even further so
    downstage spots 101-110
    downstage wash 201 210
    downstage Source 4 1-10

    The idea being that every show you do the fixture numbers and desk channels stay the same even if you have all of the original show fixtures you programmed or none.This will also make dealing with different festival setups much easier on a day to day basis and should give you a show that starts to look the same no matter what fixtures are provided.
    I can't stress enough that using palettes and sticking to palette only programming is a must,any cues or programming you do without palettes may seem quicker at the time but will without doubt trip you up further along if you use change type or replicate features.


    this is just my approach others will suggest more ways to the same result.
    Best Cormac
  • 0
    sorry I should have specified:

    I have a total show built already with pages for each song and one cuestack of positons and colors on each page. the rest of my playbacks are just intensity bumps, ACLS Blinders, strobes and a GM.

    The goal is to have my show exactly as it is on tour when we headline, where I usually just replicate my fixtures to control any house stuff.
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