GIVE YOUR HEART TO JOBURG
By Bruce Schwartz (Entertainment Lighting Manager)
On 6 September Ellis Park hosted the inaugural I Heart Joburg Music Festival - an uninterrupted 12-hour musical explosion dedicated to the extraordinary city of Johannesburg. The festival delivered one of the biggest entertainment line-ups to hit our shores, or should that be mine-dumps, and boy did the energetic music-lovers of Jozi rock the magnificent stadium of Ellis Park.
If you weren’t there, but you saw those wild and wonderful selfies, you’re probably still recovering from Facebook envy. And if you were, then you’ll be telling your kids about this one. Large format concerts at Ellis Park are now, sadly, few and far between, so arriving just before sunset brought back memories of concerts gone by. Those of us who are old enough to have kids will remember the famous 1985 Concert in the Park, featuring acts like Petit Cheval, Juluka, Brenda Fassie, Steve Kekana and eVoid. The lighting was poor (really poor), the haircuts were horrible, and the dance moves were cheesy. Oh yes, and the fact that it was a multiracial audience, and lineup, made it a big deal. So, maybe those old days weren’t so good – but, we still had loads of fun.
Enough about the past - back to I Heart Joburg. The concert boasted five major international acts: Fall Out Boy; Jessie J; Jason Derulo, Panic! At the Disco; B.O.B; and T-Pain. And then there were also six top local acts: CrashCarBurn; IFani; The Graeme Watkins Project; Kwesta; Zebra & Giraffe; and The Arrows. It was eclectic and wild, with something for everyone, and lots for lovers of great music.
The stage design offered the artists the perfect platform to wow the crowd: a highly creative and visually stunning stage setup of trussing and scaffolding, creating fingers that emanated out towards the audience. These fingers were lined with Linear LED Battens, and then pixel-mapped.
Which brings us to the lighting. My literary powers aren’t quite up to the business of describing just how awesome the lighting was, you simply had to be there. All I can say is that just about every major lighting manufacturer had a console at FOH, and real estate in the lighting section came at a premium.
Gearhouse SA were behind the technical aspects of the show, and as usual they excelled. It’s in these large events that one appreciates Gearhouse SA’s incredible level of professionalism – in every discipline, from rigging to video to lighting to sound.
Spending time with Robert Grobler and Herman Wessels (who did lighting for Gearhouse SA) was great fun. Although they had their hands full they didn’t let the pressure get to them, and had fun cracking jokes and singing along behind the consoles. They also kept the international Lighting Designers happy by running a very tight ship, and letting them do their thing.
Tight security, great organisation, world-class music, and first class technical meant that an amazing time was had by all.
Equipment List:
FOH
- 2 x MA2 Full Size
- 1 x Chamsys Magic Q 100
- 1 x Jands Vista
- 1 x Hog 4
- 2 x MA NPU
- 4 x Martin Ether2DMX8
- 2 x MA2 VPU
- 1 x Resolume
- 1 x Catalyst V4
Lighting
- 10 x VL3500
- 24 x VL3000
- 15 x Mac Viper
- 18 x Robe Pointe
- 18 x Phillips Nitro’s
- 8 x ACL Bars of 4
- 16 x 8 Cell Moles
- 18 x Robe Robin 600 LED
- 18 x Martin Mac 101
- 12 x Robe 2500 Color Wash
- 18 x Robe Ledforce18
- 16 x Robe Cityskape Extreme
- 120 x Longman Color Batterns
- 120 x IPIX Satelite
- 10 x 5K Xenon Pasef Panthers
- 6 x Strong Gladiator Follow spots