USA – Billed as the world’s largest music festival, Summerfest drew more than 800,000 people to the Henry Meier Festival Grounds on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Claypaky Scenius spot fixtures were on had for the 11-day event.
Summerfest marked its 49th year with performances by more than 800 acts representing alternative music, rock, country, R&B, pop, reggae and more. Headliners this year included Paul McCartney, Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. Clearwing Productions provided audio, lighting and backline across the Summerfest grounds. The company supplemented the festival’s lighting rigs on some stages and furnished full lighting rigs on others.
Claypaky Scenius spots made their debut at Summerfest 2016. Clearwing mounted a dozen fixtures on the Marcus Amphitheater’s upstage and midstage trusses where they augmented the spot rig for Pitbull, Blake Shelton, Chris Stapleton/Alabama Shakes, Tim McGraw and Blink 182. “We got a lot of good feedback about them; everyone seemed very happy with Scenius,” notes Ania Dankow, operations/logistics – lighting for Clearwing.
“Scenius is a well-built and versatile spot unit that was an amazing complement to the other large moving heads in the rig,” says Clearwing lighting technician Sam McKeown. “It harnesses a very smooth and well constructed color field that is bright, vibrant and resonates well cutting through any gobo or simple air effect. A very quick unit for its size, Scenius competes with smaller beam/profile units built for speed. Every lighting designer who came through was thrilled with the overall functionality of the unit and had very high regard for what this bright, well-built, fast-moving spot fixture can do.”
Aaron Hubbard, western regional sales at A.C.T Lighting, notes that, “lighting designers commented on the expansive color rendering of Scenius and the deep reds they hadn’t seen before in color mixing systems. They could also see the light hitting the stage when they focused the spots in daylight. Francesco Romagnoli, Claypaky Area Manager for North and Latin America, added, “This is a very ambitious festival and we’re glad our new Scenius fixtures excelled for Clearwing.”