LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – The seventeenth annual Forecastle Music Festival descended on Louisville’s Waterfront park for a weekend of music, activism and art. Bandit Lites is proud to once again have aided the festival’s lighting needs by supplying the systems for the two larger stages. Headliners for the weekend included Chris Stapleton, Arcade Fire, Jason Isbell, War on Drugs, Modest Mouse, Vance Joy and Jimmy Eat World.
More details from Bandit (www.BanditLites.com):
The event’s main stage, the Mast Stage, featured Roby Pointes, Cuepix WW4, Nexus 7×7, VL3000 spot and GRN moving wash units, Solaris Flares and Chauvet Illuminarc Panel 80 LED Washes all controlled by grandMA 2 full size consoles.
Bandit Lites Production Manager Dizzy Gosnell conceived the lighting system for both stages, creating a design that would dazzle in the daylight, work with touring systems and allow for quick set up and take down during set changes.
“The lighting system for the Mast Stage had to have a smaller footprint this year to allow for headline acts bringing in some of their own elements daily and have it fit on the SAM575 stage,” explained Gosnell. “With the help of the always diligent Richard Wold and Kat Harris from Lambda I think we were able to get as much of the headliners equipment hung daily. We do appreciate the amount of information we received ahead of time from the likes of Arcade Fire and Chris Stapleton’s productions (to name just two of the acts) so we could plan, arrange and choreograph the loading in and out of the gear. Talking of choreography, Richard managed to squeeze an obscene amount of trucks and buses backstage on the final day, into a very limited dock and bus area, right up against the mighty Mississippi river in a game of 18 wheeler Tetris.”
The Boom Stage, was outfitted with Robe Pointes, GRNLite Moving Washes and Chauvet Nexus AW 7×7 again all controlled by the ubiquitous GrandMA2 full size desk.
The meticulousness in preparation for Forecastle is attributed to the Bandit team’s attention to detail, communication between team members and support from the shop, with Bandit Project Manager Matt King anticipating all the needs for the weekend. The onsite crew from Bandit included Scot Sepe, Vanessa Sexton, Jason Giaffo, Nikki Dotson and Elizabeth Weller and Terese Fensler.
“I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, all of this amazing equipment is nothing if we don’t have amazing people to prep it, hang it, fly it, address it and program it,” finished Gosnell. “Only then we can get to the final stage: the extremely talented people who run it. The feeling you get as a lighting person hearing the punters go ‘ooooooh’ as you hit one small button on the desk to bring up a stunning look makes all the sweat and late nights worthwhile.”
