A Robe lighting rig was specified and used by Slovenian Lighting Designer, Crt Birsa of Blackout for Dubioza Kolektiv’s closing set of the 2023 Velenje Summer Splash open-air festival.
The Velenje show took place at The Vista, a new open-air performance space backing onto the lake and has Robe moving lights as part of the house rig. However, on this occasion, these stripped out to allow Dubioza’s full production rig to be installed for the music evening, including 35 Robe Pointes, 16 Spiider LED wash beams and 11 LEDWash 800s.
“We are playing many festivals plus our own headliner shows, so it was vital to have a festival-friendly spec that offered plenty of creative scope,” explained Birsa.
Birsa is usually acclaimed for carefully sculpted, styled and altogether more subtle lightshows, that was another reason he wanted high-impact lights: They needed to be adaptable, and the same lights also must work for the roster of other Blackout LDs who are minding the show while Birsa works his time imaginatively to cover other commitments.
Twenty-seven of the Summer Splash show Pointes were rigged mid-stage and upstage, with 8 on the floor at the back for blow-through beam work. When available, Birsa will ask for MegaPointes or at least a mix of the two fixture types for these same positions dropping aerials to assisting with the onstage drama.
Birsa is proud to say that Dubioza is the first band for whom he’s found a use for the ‘gobo shake’ effect, used during the song, Minimal. Spiiders were positioned above the stage also in the upstage trusses and used for stage and band washes, with the LEDWash 800s on the front truss for key lighting.
The festival did have an onstage LED screen in addition to the two side IMAGs, and Dubioza supplied their own ambient content for this, video was not a major part of their 2023 show, lighting was the main visual element.
At the essence of the design was creating plenty of clean and contrasty looks. “Every flash must have an impact, so some are more minimal than others, but all are strong and dynamic that’s what these Robe luminaires deliver!” Birsa noted.
The lighting rig for Summer Splash was supplied by Bumerang from Grušena, Slovenia. Robe has a big presence in this country thanks to distributor, MK Light Sound.
Other artists currently touring with lighting designs by Birsa, recent high-profile lighting designs have included a concert for pianist Peter Bence at Budapest Arena, Hungary, which involved 60 MegaPointes supplied by three rental companies, Colossal Rental, For Event Ltd and Perfect Design Factory – plus a special show at Ljubljana’s Križanke venue. This show involved around 150 Robe fixtures, a combination of MegaPointes, Pointes, LEDBeam 150s and Spiiders, all supplied by Intralite.
