Discotheques hosting shows, or events promoted by discotheques: crossovers between different types of entertainment are becoming more and more common, as the quest continues to offer the public a variety of exhilarating experiences.
This was the way the IN Festival started up. An indoor event designed and staged by the IN Discotheque of Copenhagen, it has become one of the best known and best attended in Denmark. It was held in the Denmark Hall Club in Copenhagen 8th – 9th October 1999, and had 11,000 visitors covering all ages from very young to… very adult. Many music groups, artistes, and dancers appeared on the two stages set up in the sports centre for the two days of the festival.
The show was put on by Copenhagen Light Production, a company always involved with any major event in the Danish capital. The lighting system was supplied entirely by Highlight, Clay Paky’s distributor in Denmark, who already supply the lighting equipment for the discotheque. The installation included 32 STAGE ZOOM 1200s mounted on 4 towers around the perimeter of the main stage.
From this position they projected general lighting onto the dance floors, while throwing decorative images on the ceiling and walls at the same time. Eight dancers performed on the tops of the towers, lit by 16 COMBICOLOR units. Two SHADOW QS-LT follow-spots picked up the artistes performing on the stage, on which 6 trusses converged, carrying a symmetrically arrangement of 140 Par Cans and 12 GOLDEN SCAN HPEs. Six more GOLDEN SCAN HPEs linked the two sides from the back of the dance floor, with 18 STAGE COLOR 300 and STAGE LIGHT 300 units providing further colour and graphic variation. In the centre of the area there was also a main truss measuring 15m x 15m carrying 10 GOLDEN SCAN HPEs along with more Par Cans.
Christian Norgaard the lighting designer planned the show along with Dennis Friis, chief co-ordinator and partner in the event, as well as being the owner of the IN discotheque. Christian Norgaard for his part has a very rich and varied Curriculum Vitae. He worked as Lighting Designer for the musicals Merciful Fate, King Diamond, Infernal, and Cut’n’move, and also worked in this role for Status Quo, Prodigy, Alice Cooper, Bonnie Tyler, Whigfield as well as in many television, exhibition and industrial settings at an international level. He says: “Clay Paky projectors offer, dependability, versatility, and high performance. Compared to other products on the market, they also give maximum uniformity of the light beam over the entire diameter of the area lit, and remain perfectly focused. I have always chosen to use Clay Paky products because today, as was the case ten years ago, I consider this Italian company to be light years ahead of many of its competitors”.
The show was planned and staged in a few weeks. A fortnight before the event, Christian met Dennis Friis and Kasper Steen Lange who had designed the lighting with him, to sort out the final details. Clay Paky’s Commercial Director Enrico Caironi was also present at that meeting, where the possibilities afforded by such an imposing array of lighting equipment was duly demonstrated. Christian says: ” This was my first experience of working with Stage Zoom 1200s, and it was a very positive experience. These are projectors that are particularly suited to moving body effects, and are the most powerful available in this field. They have an extensive graphic capability, which is derived from the infinite combinations of colours, gobos, and prisms that can be obtained. They are also high performance units, having a totally electronic zoom lens, operated from a control panel that pilots the electronic focussing, linear zoom movement, frost fading, and hot restrike, as well as a number of other features that would be particularly useful on tour”. Christian will be using this equipment again soon for shows on Norwegian and Danish TV.
Technical details:
Name of event: IN Festival
Venue: Hyper State, indoor stadium – Copenhagen (DK)
Date: 8th -9th October 1999
Attendance: 11,000 people
Show Area: 5500m2
Director and Co-ordinator: Dennis Friis ( owner of the IN discotheque)
Production: Copenhagen Light Production
Lighting Equipment Installed and Supplied by: Highlight (Mr Jacob Hansen)
Lighting Designer: Christian Norgaard
Lighting Equipment:
32 Clay Paky Stage Zoom 1200
16 Clay Paky Combicolor
2 Clay Paky Shadows QS-LT
20 Clay Paky Golden Scan HPE
9 Clay Paky Stage Color 300
9 Clay Paky Stage Light 300
Par Cans and other conventional spotlights.