While headliners The Chemical Brothers and Major Lazer wowed audiences on-stage, one of the less conspicuous stars of Manchester’s Parklife festival this year was dbn Lighting, returning to support the festival’s fourth year at Heaton Park.
A crew of 28 led by Pete Robinson supplied lighting, rigging and LED screens to five of the main performance areas, ensuring that each looked unique, original and like nothing that had come before it. The project entailed the supply of approximately 580 lighting fixtures including 224 moving lights and 75 strobe lights.
For the festival’s main stage dbn Lighting’s Stephen Page designed a house lighting rig that allowed for the two headliners to bring their own touring rigs in underneath. The Chemical Brothers’ production featured a large LED screen, moving robots, lasers and a plethora of lighting instruments on floor mounted structures. Major Lazer also boasted a substantial LED screen, while downstage their impressive three-sided towers made a huge visual impact.
dbn Lighting installed a full blacks truss at the back, and a series of blacks were used to mask the trusses for The Chemical Brothers. A banner truss and a video truss downstage of The Chemical Brothers’ kit was flown for Ice Cube’s show on the Saturday, which was then moved to the back and used as Major Lazer’s main screen as they closed the event on Sunday.
The Chemical Brothers crew rigged during the day on Saturday behind a temporary black, while the stage was fully operational, adding another challenge for the crews. A total of 58 motors were part of the dbn Lighting production supply for this stage – including 24 dedicated solely to The Chemical Brothers’ production.
On top of all this, the typically British weather conditions provided an extra challenge to workers, performers and audiences alike, and yet Parklife 2016 was a resounding success, with dbn Lighting’s creative production bringing the ever-growing festival to life.