NEW YEAR AT KIRSTENBOSCH

‘NY @ Kirstenbosch’ was the banner for the New Year’s Eve concert at Kirstenbosh Gardens in Cape Town. Approximately 5000 people were there to see Prime Circle and a supporting performance by Elvis Blue.  Marcel Bezuidenhout from Audio Engineering, which supplied all technical equipment for the Summer Concert Series at Kirstenbosch, invited JP Willson from Unfazed Productions to partner him in supplying, rigging and operating the lighting for the New Year’s Eve party.

Between them they supplied 1 x Martin M1 controller, 24 x Martin MAC101s, 4 x Martin MAC600 washes, 4 x Martin MAC250 Entours, 3 x Martin Atomic 3000 strobes, 2 x Jem smoke machines, 4 x Robe Robin 300 spots, 4 x Robe Robin 300 washes, 18 x Robe LED Force 7s, 1 x Lemaitre Hazer and 24 x generic channels, including crowd blinders, profiles on band members and front stage wash.

JP took care of the lighting and programming for Elvis Blue and Prime Circle, and Marcel engineered the concert on a Digico SD8.  “The M1 was easy to learn, fantastic to use, and I had fun running the show ‘live’ as we were fighting the sun for programming time – it only got dark at 8:30pm!” said JP.  “The 101s were amazing, and lots of people were trying to figure out how the trees at the back of the gardens were being lit, over 150 metres away from the stage. I was running a slow rainbow scroll over the trees and one lady came to complain that the blue light was in her eyes,
but when we looked at the stage everything was red and amber, she was very confused!” he said.

“The speed and colour range of the lights and using them on the arc of the Kirstenbosch stage was very effective, and created some great aerial beams. The weather was perfect with a slight breeze off stage which carried the haze into the air, just about perfect for lighting!”