After years of preparation by Papua New Guinea and hundreds of regional athletes, the 15th Pacific Games opening ceremony was held at the nation’s capital, Port Moresby, early in July.
Philip Lethlean designed a lighting rig that featured mainly Martin and Clay Paky products with gear shipped in from Chameleon Touring Systems. The rig featured 20 x Clay Paky Mythos, 128 x Clay Paky Sharpy, 20 x Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700, 20 x Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500, 64 x Martin MAC Aura, 40 x Martin MAC Quantum Wash, 32 x Martin MAC Viper, 80 x Fusion Bars and 144 x Martin RUSH Par 1 RGBW. Control was a MA Lighting MA2.
“The brief was to make it look spectacular and light the incredible people and their amazing costumes,” said Phil. “We also had to install everything within one week and get it out in thirty hours whilst not killing the grass!”
In the middle of the arena sat a twenty metre square stage flanked by four sixteen metre high towers. On every corner of the stage were a couple of Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500 and a couple of Martin MAC Quantum Wash fixtures interspersed by sixteen Martin RUSH PAR1 fixtures.
The towers housed Martin MAC Quantum Washes as well as MAC Viper Profiles, Martin RUSH PAR1, and Clay Paky Sharpys.
“The Martin MAC Viper Profiles worked really well and were great,” remarked Phil. “I also had six of them behind the conch shell (pictured) and they did a great job throwing light all the way from the back of the stand down to act as a backlight for the stage. Viper Profiles are brilliant, we need more of them!”
Each of the four towers were shrouded in indigenous artwork and the Martin RUSH Par 1 RGBW were perfect for washing these towers whilst also acting as footlights.
Phil used a total of 128 Clay Paky Sharpys and he revealed that they saved the day in terms of spectacle.
“I used them right at the beginning where they did a really slow opening petal of light into the air and they did a lovely job of gathering the hearts and minds around the arena and saying ‘strap yourself in we’re going to go on a cultural journey’,” he said. “You can never have too many Sharpys but what I really liked were the Clay Paky Mythos fixtures – they’re unbelievable. I had ten Mythos and ten Sharpys on each of the two front of house trusses. The Mythos were incredible, you could shoot right across the stadium with a clear gobo changing colour. It has to be the brightest fixture I’ve ever used.”
Fusion Bars, tipped on their sides, and Clay Paky Sharpys were run out half way through the show to create avenues for the athlete’s parade.
The lighting gear fitted into six shipping containers which were weeks late in arriving, the weather was hot, the technical director was sent home early with malaria and there was usually no internet in the arena. Added to that were frequent blackouts and phones that didn’t work but on the night it all came together in spectacular fashion.
