Spain’s Medusa festival offers a sizzling DJ line up from all around the world embracing a lively mix of dance genres in a fantastic seaside location at Cullera beach in Valencia by the mouth of the Jucar River. The 2023 event was enjoyed by over 250,000 people across 6 days of sun, smiles, and superlative music. This year’s main stage production and lighting design by Eduardo Valverde and a team from his design studio Experiencias Visuales (EV) included 72 MegaPointes and 12 BMFL WashBeams. These lights were at the heart of a spectacular visual environment created for this key area of the festival, which featured five stages of entertainment action.
It was EV’s first time designing the Main Stage for the event organizers, Andreu Piqueras and Javier Crecente, and the setting was evolved working closely with Brok Décor who coordinated the construction and setup of the impressive scenic elements including LED screens. This year’s theme was “Age of Times,” so the stage represented a gigantic time machine, and was completed by a feisty Steam Punk aesthetic, which has been a creative trend for many European festivals throughout the year.
The BMFLs were rigged on the FOH structure and utilized for front lighting of the decor from that angle, working in conjunction with the onstage lights dotted around the structures, all positioned to bring additional depth and drama to the performance space. The BMFLs – a classic Robe power light – were chosen for their intensity and ability to cut through to the stage from a long throw distance, and for their accurate shuttering which was essential to highlight different areas of the scenery and prevent unwanted spillage onto others.
The MegaPointes were the main effects lights on stage, and they were scattered everywhere mainly rigged to various structural elements across the 50-meter-wide span. They were used extensively in the front for creating all the major beam and aerial looks. Eduardo underlines that MegaPointes are “undoubtedly” the most potent multipurpose moving beam and spotlights of their size and class in terms of brightness, color, and speed.
Whenever he is able to choose fixtures for a lighting rider, MegaPointes will be on it in some capacity. This is not the first time that we have heard this. Robe’s multipurpose MegaPointe is a truly unique light and a workhorse product loved by so many for a diversity of applications which has made it a global best seller that continues to be popular today in multiple live contexts. “The same fixture offers a good spot and an exceptional beam,” noted Eduardo, who adds that due to its reduced weight, expedient size, and array of very strong and intense colors, “is perfect for illuminating stages with lots of LED screens and strobes.”
Talking about the Medusa Main Stage design process, Eduardo explains the advantages of having the video, set design and lighting team in-house at EV: “We collaborate from the inception of the process and ensure that each aspect is designed and studied carefully in tandem with the others.” Each element is created in 3D and inserted into a simulator to see how it will function, and which colors and textures match the best with the proposed lighting. With lighting integrated into the whole concept of the scenic pieces, they can also decide how to practically install fixtures within the decor to make the setup on site quick and efficient.
The main challenge this year was harmonizing everything, so the stage design matched the screens and in turn the screen content also made the surfaces look integrated with their positioning. With over 300 square meters of LED in the stage architecture, creating smart tricks like intensity masks were essential to boost the seamless blending of these two disciplines.
The goal was that it should be near impossible to differentiate between video, the décor in photos and other visual media. Around 400 lights in total were used on the 2023 Medusa Festival Main Stage, all programmed and operated for the event by EV’s principal systems engineer, Juan Manuel Lazaro, and his colleague David Carrasquilla. The video content creative was produced by David Inlines and the VJ / operator was Jonay Sanchez. David Guetta brought in his full touring production and operating team for his headline slot, but most other artists had their lighting taken care of by the EV team using the house system. Main Stage lighting equipment was supplied to the event by Proyect Arte, whose Robe fixtures were purchased from Spanish distributor, EARPRO&EES.
Further information from Robe lighting: www.robe.cz
Photos: by Raul Barcia
