UK – For three days and three nights, 135,000 Glastonbury Festival revelers saw their favorite headline acts, lit by some of the best lighting designers, play the Pyramid Stage. Taking care of the festival house rig was head of lighting, Andy “Fraggle” Porter, who chose Clay Paky’s Alpha Profile 1500s and Alpha Wash 1500s to deliver beam shaping, vibrant color and bright effects to the long-running event.
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Headlining acts included The Rolling Stones (lit by Patrick Woodroffe), Arctic Monkeys (LD Andi Watson) and Mumford and Sons (LD Ed Warren). Each put Fraggle’s house rig through its paces with Alpha 1500 Profiles and Washes. In addition, each designer specified his own additional requirements for Clay Paky fixtures.
For the main rig Neg Earth supplied 29 Alpha Profile 1500, 10 Alpha Wash 1500, 20 Sharpy and 10 Sharpy Wash 330. Woodroffe added more Alpha Washes, Profiles and Sharpys to the mix. Rigged at varying levels upstage, the Sharpys added architectural backlight for the audience and TV cameras. Additional Alpha Washes and Sharpys were rigged onto a custom arch truss to deliver strong key and feature lighting effects.
‘Fraggle’ was in charge of lighting at the Pyramid Stage. Working alongside Neg Earth’s account director, Julian Lavender, and his team of riggers and technicians, Fraggle managed a grueling schedule of overnight turnarounds to rig, focus and program each headlining act’s rigs.
“We were aware that the headline acts use the Clay Paky Alpha Profile and Wash 1500s as part of their standard touring rig,” explains Fraggle, who was crew chief on the Rolling Stones UK/US shows last Christmas. “This included the Rolling Stones’ LD Patrick Woodroffe. He has been using more than 100 Clay Paky fixtures, including 32 Alpha Profile 1500s, on the ’50 and Counting’ celebratory shows. My job is to ensure that we can offer the lighting solutions that each designer expects. They don’t get much time to preprogram their shows and they prefer to work with the fixtures that they are used to.”
“We positioned the Alpha Wash 1500s in the house rig on LX1 and LX 2 to provide the powerful backlight required,” he adds. “This was not just for the main acts but also for the bands playing during the daytime as they needed something that would still have an impact on the stage and pick out the performers from the backdrops.”
While Woodroffe added a number of Alpha Profiles to the front truss and specially built side trusses, Watson bought in a considerable number of Sharpys to provide dramatic beams to balance the Arctic Monkeys’ laser show.
“Designers love the Alpha Profile 1500s for their high output and, with the profile, the precise framing system,” explains Fraggle. “They are incredibly reliable and extremely robust, which is an absolute must when you are working in all weathers, outside! As for the Sharpys – well, everyone loves a Sharpy and Andy Watson used them to great effect to set off his crowd pleasing and very lively design.”
Not only did Clay Paky fixtures take headline position on the Pyramid but they were also specified for The Other Stage. Again, Neg Earth supplied the lighting and crew but here LD Tom Lesh was in charge of the stage.
“We chose the Alpha Spot HPE 1500 and the Alpha Wash 1500 because we know they are good, bright, reliable all round fixtures,” explains Lesh. “We needed fixtures that read well for the daylight shows and that would enhance headliners’ productions. The Clay Paky fixtures offered incoming designers a solid air package that worked with their floor packages and could make an impact over and above their visual screens.”
The units – fired up on Wednesday afternoon – were not turned off again until Sunday night’s festival finish. “We had absolutely no issues with any of the fixtures, which I think is impressive considering the environment they were operating in and the weather we faced – rain and shine, damp and dust.”
One of Lesh’s favorite features is the stay sharp zoom function for automatic focusing. “This is especially useful in a festival situation where we have time constraints and often can’t see enough in daylight to get a good sharp focus to gobo’s,” Lesh explains. “I especially like that you can go from narrow to wide zoom and can still be sure that it’s going to look good. This was a great feature in this somewhat challenging situation for myself, and visiting LDs alike.”
“It is a total thrill to see Clay Paky fixtures used on two such an iconic stages by such talented lighting designers,” comments Glyn O Donoghue, managing director of Clay Paky’s UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions. “We also thank Neg Earth for the incredible technical support and back up they give Clay Paky products in the field.”
“Increasingly we are seeing talented designers push the creative boundaries,” he adds. “However, I have to confess, seeing The Rolling Stones play Glastonbury for the first time ever, under a canopy of Clay Paky fixtures designed and commanded by Patrick Woodroffe (with additional instruction from the stage from Mick Jagger) – well, it doesn’t really get better than that, does it?”
