Millennium fever is high everywhere, and in every sphere of activity people are moving mountains and making extraordinary preparations to welcome the New Year. Like the “Millennium”: the biggest discotheque ever built in Austria, with a host of features qualifying it for a place among the most important show venues, if not of the entire millennium, then at least of 1999.
Work began in February of 1999, and the discotheque opened in September. Located at Krems, around 40 km from Vienna, the Millennium is open from 8 p.m. to dawn. It occupies over 1000 square metres and can hold 2000 persons.
This is a modern and innovative place of entertainment featuring large spaces that include a big stage for live shows, a spectacular central dance floor, a second dance floor above that can drop down onto the first and cover it entirely, and a movable cartwheel lighting truss overhead.
There are 7 bars, one with plate glass walls, and a VIP area.
The furnishings are linear and functional, using various materials and finished with stainless steel trim and décor elements.
“Right from the initial design we felt the need to create a different kind of venue, original for the variety of its surroundings and situations”, says owner Christian Gschwanter. “With this in mind, the Millennium was equipped with the very latest and most innovative lighting, audio and video technologies obtainable.
For instance, no other place of entertainment in Austria has a lighting system anything like ours, whether in terms of the number of products utilized, or of the performance it offers”.
An impressive array of Clay Paky lighting equipment includes 172 Mini Scans, 12 Golden Scan HPEs, 6 Stage Zooms, 5 Stage Light 300s, 8 Stage Color 300s, 12 Piper ICCs and 8 Golden Fog 200 DMXs. A good many of these are installed on a moving truss of 40 tonnes load carrying capacity.
The truss can be lowered onto the dance floor, which means considerable flexibility of use and maximum operating freedom in every different kind of show situation.
One of the worldwide leader of the Sound, Light and Multimedia Design – Manfred Meier is from KRAFTWERK LICHT-UND TONTECHNIK, an Austrian company who has been working together with the Clay Paky distributor TECHNIK DESIGN for many years, was contracted to plan and install the entire system.
Says Manfred: “the discotheque is a veritable Clay Paky showcase: there are moving body spots, washlights, large scanners, compact scanners, colour changers, smoke machines… but each one has a precise function. What is remarkable is that so many products have been specified ¾ two hundred and ten ¾ and every one has a specific location and purpose.
For example, the Stage Light spots are alternated with the Stage Color 300 washlights, whilst the Stage Zooms are positioned so that their wide beam will cover all corners of the dance floor. The Golden Scan HPEs are arrayed on all sides of the dancing area and exploited for their extensive graphics capabilities.
The reason for having so many Mini Scans is that there had to be no corner left without illumination, and in fact total coverage has been made possible by the fact that these units are extremely compact and easy to install.”
Thanks to this and other installations around the world, the Clay Paky Stage Line family of moving body projectors recently won the “Club Lighting Effect of the Year” award, confirming that this is the equipment preferred by LJs and operators for discos and for many other show lighting applications.
Top Austrian LJs and DJs perform currently at the Millennium, playing chart and commercial music on Thursdays and a mix of house, rave and other sounds of the moment for a younger audience on Fridays and Saturdays. The music is broadcast by MA Audio.
Among the other attractions offered by the Millennium are 8 Clay Paky Golden Fog 2000 DMXs, piloted from the console, 7 wind machines, and a closed circuit video projection system with two mega screens.
Clearly, a structure of this complexity affords facilities that go well beyond those of a discotheque pure and simple.
And indeed the Millennium periodically puts on theme parties: dance events, Star-Wars nights, striptease, fashion shows, beauty competitions, and of course the kind of classic events that defy national or cultural definitions, like Hallowe’en.
The Millennium is incorporated into the same building as a large multiplex, with admittance to the cinema conditional on purchase of an entrance ticket for the discotheque. A big car park accommodates the vehicles of the thousands of people who descend on Krems from every part of Austria to spend the weekend at this new leisure and entertainment centre, well aware by now that any venue with pretensions to a name like “Millennium” will be certain to have done things in the grand manner…
Location: Krems, Austria
Owner: Christian Gschwantner
Project Designer: Manfred Meier, KRAFTWERK LICHT-UND TONTECHNIK
Capacity: 2,000
Floor space: 1,100 m2
Lighting Equipment:
12 x Golden Scan HPE
6 x Stage Zoom 1200
5 x Stage Light 300
8 x Stage Color 300
172 x Mini Scan
12 x Piper I.C.C.
“Full Color Laser System”
30,000 Watt Hyperblast Strobes
60,000 Watt Audience Blinderlines
Sound Equipment:
30,000 Watt Martin audio sound system
Other attractions:
Moving truss (40 tonnes)
8 x Clay Paky Golden Fog 2000 DMX
7 x wind machine
2 x mega screen