08 June 2012
Bassline Stage,- courtesy ESP Afrika photographer Jeffery Abrahams A permanent highlight on the social calendar was the 13th Cape Town International Jazz Festival held at the ICC on 3rd and 4th April 2012. The event was kicked off with a Free Community Concert held a few days prior to the event. Various South African rental companies worked on the festival days.
“Free Community Concert”
The Free Community Concert was hosted at Green Market Square on the 28 March and boasted the largest crowd to date. The concert is part of the build-up to the CTIJF and features some of the top headliners that also perform at the Jazz Festival. C&S Audio provided the full technical, where the biggest challenge, due to the event taking place in the centre of town, was to close off the streets to set up. In a mere 24 hours, C & S transformed the Green Market Square into a complete concert venue including stage, roof, screens, PA etc. They had six hours to return it back to its former state after the concert!
Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF)
Around 15 000 people per night attended the CTIJF, hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, which comprised of markets, workshops, galleries and five stages on which both local and international artists performed. The five performance stages included Bassline (outdoor), Kippies (main stage), Mannenbergs (outdoor), Moses Molelekwa (outdoor) and Rosies (indoor theatre).
A number of rental companies worked on the event including Gearhouse, C & S Audio, Strike Alliance / Eastern Accoustics and Hellfire Productions.
Gearhouse
Gearhouse provided the full technical for the Corporate Hospitality Village and the Bassline, Kippies and Mannenberg stages including large screens, power and the likes. Project Manager Theo van As, Lighting Designers Phillip Chames and George Gilfillan, as well as the crew are to be commended. Congratulations also to Alan Muller, who Gearhouse appointed as the LD for the Mannenberg stage.
Bassline Stage,- courtesy ESP Afrika photographer Thania Petersen According to Phillip Chames, the design brief for all three stages was to take the branding and use it in a new way, which he believes was achieved with great success.
“I love the Robin 600s, they are great, and I wish now that I had used them for keylight instead of the 5ks. They have awesome colour correction functions and are incredibly versatile. I had fun with the lights this year from a live point of view,” Phillip commented.
“Another important brief from our client, ESP Afrika, was to get good pictures for camera so this year we white balanced to daylight, and this got a more accurate colour out of the intelligent fixtures for camera. Lights and camera were definitely on the same page this year and it showed. I look forward to next year and for all of us to deliver an even more spectacular JAZZ.”
Insight from Alan Muller
Lighting Designer for the Mannenberg stage, Alan Muller, said besides Cape Town being extremely busy with Sting, The Eagles, Cape Epic and K-Day (big KFM Family Concert), a very large and vicious cold front moved into Cape Town around midday on load day.
“Due to a storm on the first day of load in at the festival, fixtures had to stay covered until roughly an hour before the show commenced. Strong gale force winds saw set elements not being safe to install, nets and scrims being re arranged by nature. Focussing and rigging in rain usually leads to disaster, but with a determined well trained crew, focussing was completed,” said Alan.
“Thanks to Avolites Tiger Touch Consoles at the outside stages it meant we had colour and gobo palettes. The first Act was the ideal time to create positions and start programming. In fact, the console only met FOH with the audience already in.”
At the Mannenberg stage some of the Robin 600s were rigged at FOH during band change overs. “The change over between artists was also used to program,” he said. “Thanks to the Avo Titan training, I used Pixel mapping as my colour shapes on the Robin 600s and Robe Wash 700s for variety and versatility. A few other shortcuts and tricks meant I actually got sleep after the last act on night one …. The Stages each had OB vans and multi Camera setups for Television – No Pressure LOL.”
Robe featured on all 5 stages and for architectural lighting. There was extensive usage of the Ledforce 18 RGBWs, Robe 250 Spots, Robe 575s, Robe 700 Spots and Washes , Robin 600s, some Mac 2ks and Clay Paky Stage Zooms. Consoles included three Avolite Tiger Touches, a Saphire 2000, a Pearl 2004 and a Grand MA 2.
“The Robe 600s rock and I can’t wait for the rental companies here, and in Africa, to get some and…. hint hint, some 100s as well,” said Alan.”This was awesome entertainment, awesome gear, dedicated Lampies and a cool venue. It was a rocking festival and I can’t wait for 2013.”
Kippies Stage,- courtesy ESP Afrika photographer Terry February C & S Audio C & S provided the full technical for the Moses Molelekwa stage at the festival, which was exceptionally popular. “It was, once again, a really enjoyable experience working on the Cape Town International Jazz Festival,” commented Project Manager Matt Catto of C & S.
“The setup went smoothly, artists were a pleasure to work with and the program ran according to schedule which always helps the technical crew!” This year, C & S designed and constructed the Molelekwa stage using their new scaffolding system (which incorporates 1m x 2m StagePlus decks). “This worked extremely well and was much quicker and easier to build and to strike!” said Matt. “Our lighting rig also featured some brand new intelligent units and the Robe300 LED wash lights were a key component in the lighting design, which were rigged on the back stage-truss, as well as the two angled side-trusses.”
He adds, “Our thanks to Dylan Coudrace and Ian Watson of Hellfire Productions who made sure the roles of FOH Engineer and Stage Manager, respectively, were taken care of without any fuss – a great team to have on our side at this event! We are definitely looking forward to C & S being involved with CT Int Jazz Fest 2013.”
