Robe Gear Enjoys Splendour

Splendour in the Grass has quickly become Australia’s premier music festival attracting a 30,000+ crowd over the weekend, all there to see the biggest names from the local and international music scene. Over the three days, more than one hundred acts encompassing every conceivable music genre tread the boards of five main stages and numerous other sites across the North Byron Parklands.

Creative Productions looked after house lighting on all stages, numerous floor packages for different bands and site lighting for everywhere else; from backstage greenrooms, VIP areas, information spaces such as the new Splendour Forum, to the endless food truck and specialty bars.

The house rig for the main Amphitheatre Stage featured 11 x Robe BMFL Blades and 36 x Robe BMFL Spots, with other Robe products added for floor packages. The extensive Tame Impala floor package was also provided by Creative Productions, with 12 x Robe BMFL WashBeams and 12 x MegaPointes providing huge punch for the mainly silhouetted looks. Vibrant colours, psychedelic video shapes and extensive fog were the order of the day for the psych-rockers. A further 4 x Robe BMFL WashBeams were installed with custom gobos set and mounted on the delay towers to the left and right of FOH to provide oil wheel like projections over the band and crowd. LED Bars, strobes and lasers capped off the design from Jon Derrington that mirrored the big, fuzzy sounds with big, saturated colours and shapes.

Chameleon Touring Systems toured in the Childish Gambino floor package that featured its own unique stage risers and custom LED panels. Further Robe BMFLs, MegaPointes and Spikies were part of the main tour package, most of which stayed for the festival set, with the Cory FitzGerald design being managed on the road by Sarah Landau. 2 x Robe RoboSpot Remote Followspot Systems were used as part of the show with a modified thrust stage being built as part of the main stage setup (this was trimmed back for the festival from the main tour that used 5 x systems). This allowed light tracking of Mr Glover despite being almost concealed amongst the crowd at times. The 72 x Spikies provided sparkling dynamic looks coming from under the stage risers with their continuous pan/tilt rotation while adding to the big beam and gobo texture from above, creating depth and height to the stage look.

Meanwhile over at the other stages, MPH Australia were busy with the classic UK hip-hop act The Streets at the Mix-Up Stage, who used Robe MegaPointes and LEDWash 600s as the floor package of their national tour. At the GW McLennan Tent, Angus Stone’s other act Dope Lemon hit the stage with their all new Robe OnePATT floor package backdrop which was custom built by the team at MPH and will tour with the band beyond their Splendour set. MPH’s managing director Matt Hansen was kept busy on the main stage too, capping off the weekend with the design and operation of Matt Corby’s main stage set. This included a memorable duet with the iconic Australian singer Tina Arena, as well as a guest finale with Meg Mac, Broods, Joyride and Jarryd James. The floor package consisted of Robe MegaPointe and Spiider wash fixtures.

With a last minute cancellation of Chance the Rapper, the ever reliable Hilltop Hoods stepped up for the Sunday closer set. This meant a hasty floor package design, but the team at Creative Productions were more than up to the task with MegaPointes providing the base of the design with confetti and CO2 cannons sending off the festival with a bang.

After all of that action onstage, you could grab a cold one at the Gold Bar chill out area where the sea of gold mirror balls were lit with Robe Spiiders for subtle, glittering ambiance.

All in all, the Robe gear performed well over a tough weekend of dust, super heavy dews, extreme hot and cold weather, and huge work rates. It certainly left everyone from the gear, to the crew, to the punters, looking forward to a good clean and some well-deserved rest.

www.jands.com.au