UK– A spirited drum and bass performance by BRIT Award winners Rudimental marked the official end of this year’s Sundown Festival in Norwich, UK, but the buzz created by the three-day event lasted far longer with wildly inventive pictures and ebullient comments flooding social media. The euphoria was easy to understand, given that music fans were starved for live festival experience following the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
Sundown Festival 2021 delivered all they were looking for, serving up three days of colorful costumes, raucous fun and performances by more than 65 different acts, all in a safe environment. Providing a colorful visual setting for this welcomed experience was a lighting and production design by Bigabox Productions that featured a broad mix of Chauvet Professional fixtures on three of the festival’s four stages.
Carefully selected from Bigabox’s own inventory, the fixtures were chosen to provide the maximum level of flexibility to accommodate the personalities and styles of the various bands and lighting designers who contributed to the Sundown experience. Prominent in the mix of luminaires were the Maverick MK1 Hybrid, Maverick MK2 Wash, Maverick MK Pyxis, Rogue Outcast 1 Hybrid, Rogue, Rogue R3 Beam, and STRIKE 4.
“There was huge anticipation for the event this year in light of the lifting of Covid restrictions, and we were determined to provide a fantastic visual show for the guests,” said Production Manager Dean Graves of Bigabox. “Our selection of Chauvet Professional fixtures provided us with a variety of multipurpose tools with which to provide a number of exciting visuals around the festival stages.”
Over on the Mystree Stage, which acted as a showcase for the next generation of UK garage artists such as Biscits, Saffron Stone and Sef Kombo, the Bigabox team were able to craft a number of energetic and vivid looks with their selection of Rogue and Maverick fixtures. Positioned on the lattice of above stage and stage trussing, the combination of wash and beam fixtures enabled the team to play with depth and contrast, creating crisp gobo projections and atmosphere-shaping colored runs in support of the musical acts on stage.
Providing a visual counterpoint to these fixtures were the Maverick Pyxis fixtures, which could be found supporting the house grooves from Jess Bays, Ferreck Dawn and Sam Divine over on The Castle stage. Thanks to the beam and wash combination, the endless array of eye-candy looks were specifically added to the lighting concept to provide an added visual dimension to the performances.
“One of the main challenges with this festival was to give each artist a unique visual foundation upon which to build their sets,” said Wilson. “Combined with the Rogues and the Mavericks, the Pyxis fixtures proved to be the perfect tools for this, as they allowed us to exercise that extra level of visual creativity with sheer colorful bursts of energy.”
Another key element to Bigabox’s lighting concept were the STRIKE 4 fixtures, which were positioned above the central stage trussing structures to provide classic stadium-like effects to wow festival goers. Thanks to their high energy 100-watt strobe, blinder and incandescent-style fades, the various stages were supported with pure visual clout, essential for upholding the much coveted festival atmosphere.
“The classic blinding effects of the STRIKE fixtures proved to be perfect additions to the stages thanks to their ability to provide old school visuals,” commented Wilson. “Throughout the festival weekend, we tailored the tungsten emulating effect for each individual act performing on stage, providing blinder, strobe and fades as and when required.”
With the organizers of Sundown Festival and fans hailing the event’s return a huge success, all eyes are now fixed on next year. “It’s been a long time coming, and it was definitely worth the wait,” said Wilson. “It was clear from the audience reaction that this incarnation of Sundown Festival was one of the most memorable to date. We can’t wait to see everyone back at Norfolk Showground in 2022.”
