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DBN Lighting Enjoys Parklife with Clay Paky
Year
2010
Production
DBN Lighting
Photo Credits
Photos are of Ian Brown, by Sebastian Matthes /manox.net
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Manchester, UK based DBN Lighting supplied lighting design, equipment and crew for the main stage and two other tented areas for the new 2-day Parklife music festival, the latest addition to the lively Manchester music party scene. It also celebrated the centenary of Platt Fields Park where it was staged.

DBN was asked to light the dance/indie/crossover by event organisers The Warehouse Project and Ear To The Ground – with whom they have worked on many other projects.

Ian Brown headlined the main stage on the Friday night and Friendly Fires on the Saturday, and the project was managed for DBN by Nick Walton.

Walton also did the production design for the main stage, which was largely based around the lighting spec and design for Ian Brown by LD Fletch from Colour Sound Experiment. The rig also incorporated the flexibility to be morphed into a completely different looking show for Friendly Fires on the Saturday.

They sub hung trusses from the 18 metre Orbit style stage. The back truss was then rigged with 14 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 300s and 12 Alpha Spot HPE 1200s. The front truss had practicality to the fore, with Alpha Wash 575s for good over-stage wash coverage and Alpha Spot HPE 1200s for effects and texturing. The main stage lighting was run from an Avolites Pearl Expert. On Saturday night, the rig mutated to produce a completely different environment to host the Friendly Fires, whose lighting was operated by Mark Video.

Big Top

This was a 4 king pole tent, in which DBN rigged a 4 sided box truss between the 4 poles with a ground supported rear truss behind the stage end. Lighting fixtures included 16 CP Alpha Spot 300 HPEs and 8 Alpha Spot 575 HPEs. The rear truss also contained 4 Alpha Spot 575s. The side of the box truss nearest the stage was used for front lighting positions, while the rest of the rig was used to work luminescent magic on the dancefloor and around the rest of the tent. On the stage floor were 8 Alpha Beam 300s. The lighting desk was an Avo Pearl 2008, operated by a combination of Nick Walton and Ibs.

Hacienda/Now Wave Stage

Kele, Four Tet, Steve Mason, Errors and others got the party people moving and grooving in this intimate 2 poled tent – which was the Hacienda Tent on Friday night harking back to the heady days at the height of the Madchester dance explosion. Lighting in here was controlled on an Avo Pearl Tiger run by Ed Marriot for both days.

Walton worked with 3 other DBN crew to rig lighting in all the 3 areas, and the challenge was making everything flexible and practical enough to be changed around when needed and cater for the needs of a wide variety of artists.

Parklife was a huge success, selling out both nights – pulling in 15,000 on the Friday and 20,000 on the Saturday – and  looks set for a great future and to become a regular date in the festival diary.

In keeping with the organiser’s desire to utilise local talent and resources, Audile supplied site wide sound to all areas.