NEWS FOCUS: Lake of Stars Festival
Below: Many companies provided audio visual equipment for free to help raise money for the local economy; Lake of Stars’ FOH Engineer Craig Williams and Malawian Engineer Vinos Kaziputa set up the Midas PRO2C.
“A special mention must be made for our
Festival Control Manager, Rosie Ponting, who leads a fantastic 24-hour control centre team. In the lead-up to the event, however, it’s mainly the two Festival Directors, Will Jameson and Tom Porter.” According to FitzPatrick, the event is a world
apart from other festivals on multiple levels, but essentially all differences in the delivery are for the same reason: “Many resources that you would usually rely on just don’t exist. Fencing, cable ties, buggies, easily accessible diesel, printer ink, local event-experienced staff, admin systems, phone network, constant electricity - the list goes on! “It really challenges you to think around
problems and new systems of delivery. This can put more pressure on the team, but accordingly as the pressure increases, the team works harder as a unit and there’s such a great team spirit on the event, with the same people wanting to come back year after year bringing more friends from the industry.”
A MORE RELAXED APPROACH Coordinating and organising the stage production, before and during the event was KOKO’s in-house Production Manager Kristina Riddington. Typically found helping sound checks run smoothly in Camden, Riddington worked closely with the technical team on the Main Stage as well as the festival production managers at the Beach Stage and Star Bar. Said Riddington: “All of them are wonderfully
skilled, funny people to be around, who make my job much easier!” Having worked with both Jameson and Audile in the past, the addition of Riddington to the LOS crew was a natural step. “It’s a massive eye opener, being here. I’ve taken away a more relaxed approach to life,
12 • TPi NOVEMBER 2011
new friends and some amazing music,” said Riddington. As previously praised by Jameson, one of the biggest challenges the volunteers had to cope with wasn’t technical at all, but rather, the extreme environment in which they endured to get the festival running smoothly. Riddington continued: “I find working long
hours in the heat with malaria medication running through your system makes everything a little more challenging, but it’s totally worth it to be in those beautiful surroundings. We always try and anticipate any issues that may come up, for example, fire dancers on a wooden stage, but the unique environment means there are always surprises, which keeps it interesting.
PREMIERING THE PRO2C To fit in with the volunteer-orientated theme of Lake of Stars, the whole audio and visual set-up was provided for free this year by UK companies including Audile, Funktion One and Midas. All equipment had to stand up to the challenge of coping with extreme temperatures of up to 42º and excessive sand and grit. At FOH, the new Midas PRO2C live audio
system was put to the test at its first live event by Craig Williams, FOH Engineer, who used it to mix a host of international acts. Williams singled out the daylight visible screen as one of his favourite features of the desk: “Even in the midday african sunshine i could clearly see the screen, something that not a single other digital
“There’s such a great team spirit at the event, with the same people wanting to come back year after year bringing more friends from the industry.”
“It’s refreshing to have to make do and think
imaginatively to fix things when we don’t have access to all the services we’re used to back home. I was blown away by the generosity of all the companies who lent us professional quality equipment. “The Midas PRO2C performed beautifully
and made it possible for us to meet the specifications of some of our more complicated band set-ups, the PA sounded fantastic and I had bands and audience alike praising the quality of the sound both onstage and out front, and it looked brilliant due to [LD] Matt’s creations.”
desk can boast.” After just 30 minutes Williams felt confident
using the PRO2C and benefitted from the MCA groups, which made mix navigation easier on the small footprint console. The colour coding system for selected channels in the VCAs was also invaluable when using such a small desk in a festival situation. The tiny footprint and low weight was much-needed for a festival like Lake of Stars and with no outboard rack requrements, production were able to save a large amount in shipping costs to Africa. Williams was not the only fan of the PRO2C at the festival - Foals’ touring engineer, Paul
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