Over 500 Robe moving lights were supplied by three German rental and technical production companies to four main stages at the 2024 edition of Lollapalooza Berlin festival, organised by Live Nation and staged over two days at the Olympiastadion.
The North and South stages, the Alternative Stage and Perry’s Stage all featured Robe solutions, supplied by TSE (North), the Media Resource Group – MRG (South & Perry’s) and Sound Projekt (Alternative).
The North Stage was the biggest stage at the festival – four bays deep, one more than the South Stage – with all structures supplied by Stageco. Peter Weist was TSE’s FOH lighting ‘babysitter’, overseeing lighting for headliners OneRepublic and Sam Smith, respectively.
The Robe fixtures included FORTEs, MegaPointes and Spiiders, spread across four trusses, with iFORTEs on the front truss in the most exposed positions and additional MegaPointes on the floor stretching out along the side wings.
iFORTES were picked for their “power and impact even during the daylight hours,” commented according to Weist, and daylight was the state for most of the festival. While only the final headliners on each stage played in full darkness, having the lights there for all the daytime slots made a massive difference and they were essential for everyone to also look good on camera. They also needed intense fixtures to hold their own against the large LED screen surfaces.
MegaPointes were chosen for their “speed and versatility” and Spiiders as a “go-to wash” solution. The Spiiders were the oldest fixtures on the rig, but they were still highly effective and just “keep going and going,” according to Weist.
Four RoboSpots were in action at FOH, paired with four iFORTE LTXs – plus a spare – rigged on an 18m-high tower, with the base stations located stage right by dimmer city. Weist confirms that using remote follow systems provides “far better” working conditions for the operators than traditional follow spots, and it also means the FOH towers can be “slimmer and more elegant” as there is less weight to support.
TSE Project Manager, Thomas Stütz was working on his third Lolla Berlin event, although TSE has serviced the festival right from the start with the inaugural Berlin edition in 2014. He explained that they are free to present a production lighting design that will function for all artists, and they choose to specification a lot of Robe because “everyone is happy using Robe”.
They had two-and-a-half days to get in, up and running, with a festival style de-rig and re-rig overnight to make some adjustments for incoming headliner, Sam Smith. In addition to the top rig, OneRepublic added six MegaPointes under their main riser together with a bunch of strobes.
TSE worked closely with Big Rig and provided all the trussing and motors they needed to fly lighting, video and audio. Screen Visions were the LED screen vendor on this stage, while TSE also supplied the d&b audiotechnik system, together with 12 crew split between sound and visual departments.
At FOH, two Robe PATT2013s were rigged in the structure to illuminate the Robe FOH Fridge which was a lifesaver and ensured everyone working in and around the lighting FOH area stayed hydrated and happy in the searing heat!
The South and North stages were offset by around 145° facing away from one another, both in the main area of the stadium and operated in ‘flip-flop’ style. They were scheduled to allow the audience plenty of time to get from one to the other.
Lighting was supplied by Media Resources Group, and included Robe iFORTEs, BMFLs and Spiiders rigged over the stage, with eight iFORTE LTXs at FOH for follow spots, paired with eight RoboSpot BaseStations under the stage. The number due was requested by Sunday night headliners, K-pop sensation Seventeen.
The standard FORTEs were rigged in the roof trusses together with the BMFLs, and the Spiiders were divided between the roof trusses, with some along the top of the side IMAG screens. On the floor, more iFORTEs were lined up along the bottom of the wings, below the IMAG screens – these exposed positions were an ideal place for IP rated fixtures – and upstage on the deck was a row of 14 MegaPointes for back lighting and effects.
The FOH lighting co-ordinator here was Marvin Amstädter. “Obviously, we needed the intensity and brightness of these FORTEs and BMFLs,” commented Kilian Körber, Media Resources Group’s Key Account Manager on site. “Everyone is very happy to work with Robe,” he remarked.
Perry’s Stage lighting was also supplied by MRG based in Crailsheim in Baden-Württemberg. Perry’s was located inside the imposing Olympic Stadium building, headlined by Martin Garrix and The Chainsmokers, respectively.
Obviously, they needed all those super-quick, effect-heavy fixtures so 34 MegaPointes and 52 Pointes were deployed, joined by 41 Spiiders, four BMFL Blades, 18 Tetra2s and two standard FORTEs, which together with other luminaires, were positioned with reference to the headliner’s lighting plots.
Lighting on Perry’s stage was looked after by Oliver Reusch, and Kilian commented again that there was no question about having Robe on this fast-paced stage. “Robe on the rig makes it very easy for us in that everyone accepts the brand, there’s never any questions, they are always happy to work with these products,” he said.
Sound Projekt from north-east Germany supplied lighting and audio plus stage management services for the Alternative Stage for the fourth year, which hosted a slew of great artists including Sam Tompkins, Glass Beams, Christopher and many more. The stage was project manager for them by Fabian Schwabe and the lighting operator and FOH co-ordinator was Martin Trantow.
This year, there was no video on the stage, so all the visual drama and atmospherics needed to be created with lighting, for which they needed “properly multifunctional” lights that could cover many different scenarios, explained Schwabe.
The production lighting design was a practical and well-tested festival formula, with 20 MegaPointes for the beams and 24 Spiiders for the washes, all rigged in the three over-stage trusses and two roll-on-roll-off floor trusses to offer additional floor specials from the deck. These were augmented with four iPointes and six iSpiiders in the more exposed positions on the front truss.
MegaPointes are “hugely flexible as they can be a beam or a spot,” noted Trantow. “It’s fun and also a great learning curve to produce a good lightshow for all these different styles of performers.”
