Once again, lighting designers, production companies and rental outfits were loving their Avolife at Glastonbury . . .
The British media server and console manufacturer enjoyed its usual strong presence at the festival this year, with media servers and consoles controlling lights and visuals for numerous acts and stages across the three-day event.
Beginning with The Other Stage, lighting designer (LD) Jamie Thompson of MIRRAD and lighting director Ben Everett controlled Thompson’s Knight of Illumination (KOI) nominated design for Emeli Sandé on two Sapphire Touch consoles on the Sunday. Indie rock band Wild Beasts were also performing on The Other Stage, with LD Will Kinnard using his Tiger Touch II to control the energetic lighting effects for the band. Also from MIRRAD was KOI award-winning LD Francis Clegg with KANO on The Park Stage and Slaves on The Other Stage using an Avo Quartz and Wing setup for both.
The John Peel Stage saw another KOI award winner, LD Tom Campbell, use his Avo Quartz for the high-impact Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes set and Dan Creasey of Congo Design with his personal Titan Mobile for Declan McKenna.
Also on a Quartz was LD Miles Weaver of Cue Design and show operator Nick Whitehead for Kate Tempest at West Holts. Weaver was also present with DJ Mura Masa at Silver Hayes using a Quartz LD Tom Laurent could also be found, dancing away at front-of-house, while using a Quartz and Titan Wing for Loyle Carner in the John Peel Tent.
Headlining West Holts was Justice, with video operator Sebastien Sacco from PreVues using an Avolites RX8 Ai media server to control the set’s visuals. Ai was also down in the depths of The Common on the newly redesigned dance stage, The Temple, with visuals designed by Limbic Cinema. An Avolites team was on the ground with two Avolites Ai R6 Media servers, with lighting designed and controlled by Paul DeVille on an Avo Arena console.
Avolites proved common at The Common, what with designers Julian Weare and Colm Whaley using an Arena amid the vast light show and big sound beats of reggae stage, The Cave, and Daniel English serving up some cool lighting effects on a Tiger Touch II at the Rum Shak.
Down in immersive nightclub The London Underground, LD Jonathan Godsmark used an Arena console for Block 9’s crowning glory, while on The Sonic Stage at Silver Hayes, Jonathan Oliver of Wolf Lighting used a Tiger Touch II and ART2000 dimmer racks were used by LD Stephen Abbiss for Brighton DJ Fatboy Slim for Saturday’s headline slot.
Things got spicy over on the Glastonbury Latino Stage where the Enlighten crew of Emma Perry, Sam Chandler, Marc Aitken and David Johnson were hands-on with a Tiger Touch II console.
Revolutionary revelations revealed at Shangri-La’s The Truth stage with LD James Bunning using an Arena Console and Avolites R8 Ai media server, operated by Will Guinn and supplied by PF Events, creating riotous lighting effects.
Fineline Lighting continued their long tradition of supplying The Acoustic stage and Circus Big Top, this year with LDs James Louden, Ben De Sousa and Simon ‘Junior’ Johnson on Sapphire Touch consoles, and The Cabaret with designers Rachel Moule and Wingnut on Tiger Touch II consoles. Rounding off Fineline’s stages was The Acoustic Stage where LD Simon ‘Junior’ Johnson was on a Sapphire Touch.
Straight shooting could be seen on the Love Bullets stage supplied by Twisted Audio with designers Richard Bullen and Alex Boot on a Tiger Touch II and Titan Wing, and then, rounding everything off was Arcadia - the fire-breathing, kaleidoscopic visual feast by lighting and production design company, MIRRAD. MIRRAD’s David Cohen used a 2 x Sapphire Touch and Wing for the spider-stage’s lights, a Quartz for flame control and an Ai RX8 media server operated by Tom Wall to output Arcadia’s video mapping.