In recent years, Melodifestivalen – Sweden’s preselection programme for the Eurovision Song Contest – has visited six cities, however, due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year the showcase was staged at Stockholm’s Annexet Arena and broadcast live on STV1. Having lit the production for two decades, Fredrik Jonsson harnessed 200 Robe moving lights and four RoboSpot systems among other fixtures to bring the 2021 rendition to life.
Jonsson worked closely with Set Designer, Viktor Brattstrom, with video content supplied by Green Wall Designs. With a trim height of around 10m – and without the limitations of having to tour the rig – the circumstances gave rise to an idea floating around for some time which involved integrating a roof into the set design. This resulted in the black rectangular scenic roof sections rigged with an upstage / downstage orientation, with lighting trusses filling the gaps in between.
A 24m-wide by 28m-deep stage achieved a desired catwalk / runway perspective, with the entire roof system set at 4.9m from the stage floor. The low trim meant that big bulky lights were out of the equation, thus Robe MegaPointes and LEDBeam 150s were selected at the core of the lighting design. Some 88 MegaPointes and 82 LEDBeam 150s were rigged in triangular-shaped trusses to maintain the linear perspective at the heart of the set concept.
BMFL WashBeams were the followspot of choice. However, with this design, it was impossible to rig them on the back bars and keep the clean lines due to the larger size of the fixture compared to the LEDBeam 150. After some experimentation, the LD opted to use six MegaPointes as his rear follow spots which retained the aesthetic integrity of the rig. These six fixtures were hooked in to the RoboSpot system.
Creative Technology Northern Europe’s crew combined the fixtures with short pipes and swivel couplers to enable the LED Beams to sit slightly lower from the trusses allowing the fixture lenses to align with the MegaPointes. An additional 27 Robe BMFL WashBeams were utilised for key light, four of which were the front follow spots, also running on a RoboSpot system.
MegaPointes were the main workhorses for creating all the effects in the stage area. Most of the units were situated in the roof rig, with a few on the ‘flowerbox’ set pieces – two sets of lights on shelves running US / DS on both sides of the stage. “Given the low trim, I needed a good zoom and lots of options to give each of the 28 competition songs plus around 20 interval acts a unique and distinctive look,” Jonsson explained.
LEDBeams were rigged in almost identical positions as the two types of fixtures worked in tandem. “It’s outstanding ‘bang-for-buck’ considering the tiny size,” he commented. “They create impressive ACL style beam effects, big voluminous washes and can even be used for key lighting at specific times. It’s a great little fixture with plenty of tricks up its sleeve”.
For this show, BMFL WashBeams were used as the front follow spots and key lights for the main stage, the B stage and other critical positions like the hosts, etc. “The BMFL WashBeam optical system is amazing!” he stated. “I love the big chunky lens and the wonderful texture in the beam that really looks and acts like a ‘real’ follow spot when used as key light,” Jonsson said.
Lighting Operators, Danne Persson and Timo Kauristo used a combination of MA Lighting grandMA2 and grandMA3 consoles. The disguise Operator was Fredrik Stormby.
To ensure the event was COVID-19 secure, the production team worked in department-specific ‘bubbles’. The ‘FOH bubble’ even had their own toilet. They resided in a hotel connected to the arena during the weeks, meetings were all online and face masks were mandatory in the arena. Each crew member was issued with distance tags that emitted alerted crew when anyone inadvertently got closer than 1.5m.
Mello 2021 was won by Tusse, who sang Voices. The singer will represent Sweden in the 2021 Eurovision Song Context Final in Rotterdam on 22 May.