Robe Takes a Ride at Liseberg

	Liseberg Ice show. Photo: Johannes Rosell

Legendary Liseberg -- with its giant wooden-tracked "Balder" roller-coaster that dominates Gothenburg's skyline -- is one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, attracting around three million visitors a year. Opened in 1923, it's also reckoned to be one of the best attractions in the world, with a lively mix of activities offering something for people of all ages and personalities.

In addition to all the rides, there are four live stages, and the Park produces around 800 events a year in its two seasons -- from April to September and November through December, including an award-winning ice show. Lighting for all these is overseen, coordinated, and for the most part also designed by Rickard Broman and Jenny Björklund.

Liseberg's main stage can accommodate up to 20,000 people and frequently hosts concerts by international touring artists. Their small stage has capacity for an audience of around 1,750, and then there is the Children's Theatre and the open-air dance court, which is used for traditional -- rather than EDM -- dance events.

So, they have the facilities to cater for a huge variety of shows which will also include resident musicians, magicians, and performers -- most of the stages are in use every day during the seasons.

The Ice Show is staged in a special area, and Robe Pointes have been used on it for the last two years, supplied by local rental company Mediatec, making a real difference to the quality of lighting that can be created.

The 14 fixtures were rigged on two trusses running along the 40m length of the ice on both sides, and are used to accentuate all the drama.

Broman and Björklund are said to be so delighted with the additional value of having the Pointes on the show, they are hiring in more ... and even replacing the followspots with Pointes this year.

They reportedly were extremely impressed with the additional features and effects. "They are so small and bright, and using the prisms we can get a really nice flat horizontal beam of light that covers the entire ice," enthused Björklund.

They were also able to turn them around and illuminate the surrounding buildings for a completely different ambience.

Mounted in weather-domes, the Pointes had no problem dealing with the average minus 15 - 20 degree temperatures, although they were left lamped on to keep them a little warm.

A selection of other Robe fixtures are frequently in use around the park. For the well known TV special broadcasts of Lotta på Liseberg -- rousing sing-alongs presented by TV personality Lotta Engberg on location at Liseberg -- for which lighting designer Lotta Hammarstrand, among Sweden's TV lighting designers, uses LEDWash 1200s.

MMX Spots are also currently being used on the smaller Taube stage, and Björklund and Broman report that they also have their eyes on BMFL Spots and are really looking forward to being able to give Robe's newest technology a good work-out.