As the sound of country music filled Newcastle’s Foreshore Park, and thousands of old and new fans flocked to the field, Forefront was ready to provide an unforgettable Audio, Video and Lighting spectacle for the inaugural Howlin Country Music Festival.
With country music on the rise across Australia, it was a bona fide certainty that Newcastle’s newest large-scale live music event would be a sell-out show. As ticket sales ran well over ten thousand, and a lineup of top-tier acts (including global stars Tyler Childers, Brad Cox and Sons of the East) locked in, Forefront was brought on board to ensure the festival would rock on well into the warm summer night without any technical hiccups.
With an over 30-year history of providing top-tier live-production services for large-scale events and festivals, Forefront was the unequivocal choice to offer a full-scale audio, video and lighting rig for the festival’s main stage. From ensuring comprehensive audio coverage and clarity to blowing off cowboy boots and hats with a stunning lighting and LED rig, and everything in between, Forefront’s extensive experience and inventory were ready to tackle the task of pulling off another seamless event.
“Forefront Productions were fantastic to work with for HOWLIN’ COUNTRY; they have a great team who are easy to work with and accommodating. Great company to work with and will deliver,” said Greg Moe Matthew, Howlin Country Principal.
Sweet Sounds of Summer
As each band and artist took to the stage, they could be sure that every note and line would be heard loud and clear for every fan across Foreshore Park, thanks to Forefront’s large inventory of Adamson PA. With a main line array of 32 x Adamson CS10 elements, with 20 x CS119 Sub Elements, and 24 x CS7 Line Array Elements for delays, every guy and gal could hear every beat and sing along to every word.
With a multitude of acts to accommodate, Forefront relied on the powerful DiGiCo Quantum 338 at Monitors, and SD10 at Front of House, providing top-of-the-line mixing capabilities and an expansive channel count to build upon. For wireless monitoring and microphones, Forefront deployed a mix of Sennheiser G4 Wireless IEMs and Shure Axient AD4QA Digital Wireless Microphone Systems.
Light Up The Day And Night
Matching the audio system was an equally impressive LX rig, made up of a variety of breathtaking fixtures. This included 18 x Chauvet Color Strike fixtures, one of Forefront’s newest inventory additions. Also taking the stage across three pre-rig lighting truss deployments were a variety of Robe Spiider, Martin Viper, MAC Quantum and Martin MH11 fixtures, powered by a pair of LSC Unitour power distribution units and controlled by multiple grandMA consoles.
An Unmissable Display
Alongside the lighting rig, a magnificent PixaPanel LED display kept every one of the tens of thousands of eyes glued to the stage for every performance. Using a total of 136x E3 3.9mm panels for the 8.5-metre-wide upstage wall, and 60x T5 5.9mm panels to flank both sides of the stage, the incredible contrast, sharpness and brightness of the PixaPanel displays partnered perfectly with a mix of IMAG content and pre-programmed visuals.
An Outstanding Success
FFP was honoured to play a part in bringing this exciting expression of live music to Newcastle, and is incredibly thankful to the whole team at Howlin for getting them on board!
Photos: Mitch Lowe
