Germany – Vive la France was the motto of this year’s Wassershow at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg. The four largest water events in Europe were dedicated to Louis XIV, the French King famous for the water shows he held at Versailles. They took the spectators on a virtual journey through La Grande Nation. The combination of fire, water, video, lights, lasers and music involved almost all the expanses of water found in the car city‘s park. The lighting designer Andreas “Mini” Mertens used grandMA2 consoles once again. A total of four grandMA2 light consoles, 3 grandMA2 full-size consoles and 1 grandMA2 fader wing were used to control the lights, pyrotechnics and fountain effects.
The moving lights included 50 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330s and 20 Clay Paky Mythos units. “I asked specifically for these moving heads and LED lights for the Wassershow especially since I wanted tried and tested equipment, which was reliable and required little maintenance,” Mertens said. “Furthermore I put high light output on the top of my list of priorities, which of course brings Mythos units and Sharpy Wash 330s immediately to mind. The clash between the two elements – fire and water – obviously meant the equipment needed to meet high standards and had to be protected by specially designed covers.”
Fabrice Heitz of Aquatique Show International designed and programmed the water effects and LEDs. Frank Lohse from Lunatx Special Effects GmbH dealt with the pyrotechnics, and Stephan Flören was in charge of controlling all the videos. Everything was coordinated with a grandMA2 console.
Leyendecker GmbH provided the lighting equipment. Nico Eishold was the technical manager on site for Leyendecker, and Jörg Olms and Heiko Steffen were the lighting technicians.