After a hugely successful sold-out event in 2019, and an unfortunate COVID cancellation in 2020, the world’s most remote music festival returned to the Simpson Desert with its biggest ever line-up of iconic Aussie rock acts.
Held on July 6 – 8, the 2021 Big Red Bash featured Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, John Williamson, Daryl Braithwaite, Russell Morris, Thirsty Merc, The Black Sorrows and more.
For the first time, Melbourne-based Powa supplied all aspects of production saying their “One Stop Shop” approach, along with their adaptable Ground Support options, secured them the job.
“We were able to provide a roof option that hadn’t been within their reach previously as well as a single point of contact for all production needs,” commented Geoff Knight, Managing Director of Powa.
Every aspect of the production was shipped with a convoy of three “B” Doubles, one Tour Bus and two Support Cars. One “B” Double came from Queensland with a stage that Powa has been leaving in QLD as part of their operations there and the rest from Melbourne. The drive from Melbourne took a full three days with around 300kms of gravel roads to get into Birdsville. As part of Powa’s solution, being able to manage the logistics in getting gear to and from the site as well owning the trailers and transport helped with making it cost-effective.
Powa supplied the stage, ground support including delay towers, audio system, lighting system, vision system including LED screens, cameras and control and all crewing as required.
“We had to take into account the remoteness of the site and potential breakdowns so we took the two support cars so if the bus or vehicle broke down we had options as well as allowing sufficient time to attend to issues,” said Geoff. “Part of the challenge was getting crew to Qld as when we started working on this project Melbourne was in lockdown, then Melbourne was OK but NSW ended up in lockdown which had several crewing and artists challenges.”
Geoff added that the Big Red Bash Team were amazing to work with and Lucas from Event Safety Services had a wealth of knowledge and was a great support to Powa. From suggesting practical ways to protect vehicles to dealing with Covid-19 testing, they were all over it and the team were all incredibly helpful and professional – nothing was too much for them to handle.
The site is a desert with lots of soft sand. Powa had worked on beaches and various challenging sites before so they were well prepared for the challenges that presented.
“The biggest challenge was getting the plant to the site although most of the site forklifts came from Melbourne,” said Geoff. “There was an art to not bogging the forks and trucks. Our crew managed incredibly well and we delivered everything we intended on time.
“Dealing with Covid-19 was challenging too and being able to get crew to the site. Having our tour bus enabled us to travel into and out of the site as a travel bubble, especially with the restrictions around NSW. We were able to only stop for fuel and most of the sites are contactless regarding fuelling up.”
The tour bus was used as accommodation for the crew although some of the guys had swags and Geoff bought along his site office.
Lighting
Powa wanted to celebrate their surroundings and so the stage was kept open at the back to allow views of the Big Red sand dune behind it, framed by the truss structure.
“We also needed to work with the artists and their requirements to produce a memorable experience in the desert,” added Geoff. “Having a large number of artists meant we needed to be flexible in the design so each artist could have their own impact.”
The rig included Claypaky Unicos doing mid, back and floor with breakups, aerial and solid beams of colour whilst Light Sky X-Beams mounted throughout the roof offered beams and aerial effects that looked great through the dust that was in the air. Robe Robin 600 LED Washes were used for generic stage wash as well as various stage effects, Robin 100 LED Beams mounted on the truss circle delivered stage effects and eye candy, Robin MMX were front profile spots and Robe 1200 Washes produced front stage wash. Thirty-two LED Blinders were spread across the front, mid, back and around the floor.
Control was an MA Lighting MA2 full size with an MA2 lite as backup and a Hog 4 for Paul Kelly.
“We were lucky that we had a bit of time before the event to get most of the basic looks and colours pre-programmed,” remarked Geoff. “Our main lighting operator Darren used the MA and did have to spend a night or so programming and doing the finishing touches, as we didn’t know who was playing and when with all the artists changing because of COVID lockdowns. We weren’t 100% sure on who could make it there until a couple of nights before the event started.”
The main video element was a rear circle screen with most content provided by the artist and event team, all controlled at FOH. There were also two 7m x 4m Imag screens with three operated cameras, two PTZ and a drone.
Audio
The main PA hangs were L-Acoustics with 12 x K2 and side hangs of six Kara, infill ARC IIs with 16 x SB28. Delays were each a hang of 6 x EV XLCDVX.
“The L-Acoustics PA is logistically more flexible with wide dispersion, consistent coverage and performance,” said Geoff. “It’s something that all the acts flying in can rely on. The EV delays again played into the wide full range coverage required to reach such a large scale area.”
A Midas Pro1 was used to mix the B Stage and handle the inputs for the FOH consoles of an Avid S6L, a Profile and DiGiCo SD10. Anatole Day mixed all the house acts with Kalo Taylor and Hamish McKoy on systems.
Monitors were run on a DiGiCo SD5CS with EV XW15 and Shure PSM1000 IEMs. They were mostly mixed by Gordon Wood, with systems and patch done by Troy McGregor and Tim Knight. Mics were all the usual characters – mostly Shure with some Sennheiser 904s on the toms. There were two patch systems with 64 channels for the house band and 48 channels for the main/guest acts. Planning out the movements with stage management was essential.
“There were obvious challenges with dust and such a large area to cover in a remote part of Australia,” began Geoff. “However, I think the biggest challenge was the rotating lineup. As much as we would plan our patch and stage systems, Covid-19 would intervene – that artist is no longer coming, or bringing a different lineup. We had to have all bases covered and be very flexible!”
Powa’s equipment all survived the journey and the environment but three weeks was spent cleaning all the gear after the event. Fortunately, several of Powa’s events are in this type of environment, so are they are well used to it.
“I can’t express enough gratitude for the crew,” concluded Geoff. “They live in close quarters in our travel bubble, build our stage systems, then install production and run the show. It is their ability to multi-task and work together as a team that gets the job done so smoothly.”
Photos: Matt Williams, Gary Tischer
