Organisers had big plans for FLAVS when they sat around a table planning the event last year. Billing itself as “the largest hip-hop festival in Indonesia,” FLAVS was more than ready to live up to this claim. Glastonbury headliner Stormzy was schedule to appear at the festival, which was supposed to kick off 4 April at Istora Stadium in center of the city. So too were international stars like Azealia Banks and Lil Pump.
Of course, COVID-19 put an end to these plans. After first being postponed to a later date, the live festival was scrapped and moved to a virtual two-day event streamed from Studio Md TV. With local artists replacing the original star-studded line-up, skeptics might have expected the August 15-16 show to be a subdued, meandering affair haunted by thoughts of what might have been. They’d have been dead wrong.
As so often has happened when creative spirits have been challenged by this pandemic, those involved in FLAVS came roaring back with a fierce burning intensity that blew away any disappointment. The 40 artists who appeared at the festival created a tight, non stop torrent of raw unapologetically passionate sound, leaving those who paid Rp 99,000 (US $6.99) for a virtual day pass with the feeling that their money was well-spent.
Supporting these artists was a rapid fire, colorful Iwan Hutapea light show run on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 console. Busking to keep pace with an ever-changing set list, Hutapea moved his six universe 80 fixture show through a varied mix of looks that reflected the music and personality of each artist.
The user-friendly layout of the MQ500, with its HD display made it easier for him to keep pace with the high energy performers on stage. “When you are running the boards in a show like this, you appreciate the logical layout of the MQ500 with its HD display and how easy it makes things,” said Hutapea, a long time ChamSys users whose work many large Indonesian festivals like Soundrenalin.”
The customized Color Picker feature of the MQ500 was also essential to Hutapea’s design, as he bathed the stage and surrounding area with a wide variety of color blends to give each group a unique visual signature. “Given that this is a relatively small studio rather than a bigger festival stage, we were limited in the looks we could create with aerial effects, so we often relied on creating unique color combinations,” he said. “The MQ500 gives us a lot of power to do this.”
Those color combos were coordinated with the distinctive configuration of seven video walls that ran across almost three-quarters of the upstage wall. With a larger square wall behind the DJ booth flanked on each side by three irregularly shaped panels, the video displays focused attention on center stage.
“Everyone associated with this festival worked hard to make it a great experience,” said Hutapea. “This includes Visicita and DiandraPromosindo, the Indonesian LD Association, and Pecahin (Penata Cahaya Indonesia). They all gave me a lot of support.”
Hutapea took this support and ran with it, creating a compelling array of looks that any festival, virtual or live, would be proud to call its own.