Robe at the Splashy Fen Music Festival in South Africa

	Robe at the Splashy Fen Music Festival

Production lighting for the 2012 Splashy Fen Music Festival -- staged in the beautiful foothills of the southern Drakensberg mountains, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa -- was designed by Llewellyn Pieters from Durban based event technical support company, Black Coffee.

The rig involved a selection of Robe moving lights including Robin 600 LEDWashes and ColorSpot 575 and 1200E ATs, chosen by Pieters who was lighting designer/operator for the event for the second year running.

He needed to make the stage as versatile as possible as a performance space for the popular boutique festival, offering the wide variety of emerging and established artists playing throughout the event their own distinctive looks. The lighting concept needed to be as dynamic as possible for the budget.

The lights were arranged across three trusses and on the floor. The back truss had four T-shaped bars added, creating a 'virtual LX bar' upstage.

"I needed to get the absolute maximum out of each fixture," explains Pieters.

The LEDWash 600s were spread out evenly along the back and mid trusses, where they were ideal for solid cross stage wash coverage. Their light weight also helped balance the weight loading of the trussing, with the ColorSpot 575s positioned to the sides.

The ColorSpot 1200E ATs were sat on top of their flight cases on the floor.

The low power consumption of the LEDWash 600s was also useful as only a 63A single phase was available for lighting, and they also take up a lot less space in the truck.

Pieters comments, "When working in smaller venues with limited power -- and the client of course always wants the best light show possible -- using the LED fixtures means we can now create a mini concert effect in a standard function room."

He likes the fact that LEDWash 600s can be used for authentic PAR can emulation and being able to change the focus positions helps give the overall impression of a much larger rig.

For Splashy Fen -- particularly this year with the absence of seasonal rains -- the Robes stood up well to an exceptionally dusty environment. They also handle the general humidity of the Durban area and the salinity of the sea air very well, confirms Llewellyn.