When the gates first opened for the 2021 edition of the Sunset Music Festival on 29 May, eyes all over the world were seemingly locked on Tampa, Florida. After all, this year’s event was one of the first major festivals to return on a full scale post-pandemic lockdown. Wanting to deliver an experience worthy of the pent-up anticipation, organisers brought together an exciting and eclectic lineup and spectacular production packages across its three stages – including a Trinity robotic line source system from PK SOUND for the bass-heavy Eclipse Stage.
“As Florida’s first festival back, Sunset Music Festival’s objective was to spare no expense to deliver the finest experience possible,” commented Sunset Events Owner, John Santoro. “When selecting a speaker brand for the Eclipse bass stage, we knew we needed the industry’s gold standard. PK SOUND has a well-earned global reputation for delivering powerful, high-impact audio. It’s the go-to system for many of the world’s top artists and DJs and our audio team loves it, too.”
Over the course of the festival’s two-day run, producers Sunset Events and Disco Donnie Presents welcomed high-profile artists including Zomboy, 12th Planet, Riot Ten, Midnight Tyrannosaurus, and Sullivan King to the Eclipse Stage. To satisfy the performers and the thousands of fans packed in front of them, Florida’s ESI Productions sourced a PK SOUND Trinity system and Gravity subwoofers from St. Louis, MO’s Logic Systems.
The deployment featured main arrays of eight Trinity robotic line source elements per side, 20 Gravity 218 subwoofers lining the front of the stage in stacked pairs, and six medium-format T10s serving as front fills.
“The Trinity system was a great fit and easily handled everything we threw at it over the course of the festival,” commented ESI’s George Tzouanopoulos, the Eclipse Stage’s FOH Engineer for the weekend. “Having real-time control over the coverage with the array already deployed definitely helped get the energy everywhere we needed it and nowhere we didn’t. Plus, the Gravity 218 subwoofers were killer. I haven’t been that impressed by a sub in a long time.”
Ultimately, Sunset Music Festival welcomed 64,000 fans and 74 performers for what EDM.com called its “dazzling 2021 return,” adding: “There was a special energy that could be felt. The event brought a true sense of unity and shared togetherness to all the people in attendance.”
Reflecting on the weekend, Tzouanopoulos doubles down on the sentiment, saying: “I was happy to see that after all the craziness that 2020 brought all of us in the entertainment industry, we were able to pull together and put on an awesome show again – especially one of that size. Good energy, good vibes, and solid work from all the crews involved made for a great couple of days, both for us and the attendees. I think we were all very happy with the outcome and can’t wait to do it again.”