23 June 2011
Cape Town based Ultra Events were involved in a couple of enjoyable events during the December holidays. These include five New Year Eve parties, one of them being a 5FM Street Party, and a series of shows for Huisgenoot Musiekplaas held throughout the holidays in Hartenbos.
Huisgenoot Musiekplaas
Ideally set in a resort in the coastal village of Hartenbos in the Western Cape, the popular Huisgenoot Musiekplaas, which runs randomly over five days in December, attracted between 2 000 to 5 000 guests per evening. Locals and holiday makers alike gathered to see a showcase of various Afrikaans artists including Jay, Heinz Winckler, Boby van Jaarsveld, Elizma Theron and Kurt Darren. This annual event is renowned for its “feel good” festive atmosphere.
The outside floor plan including seating from the stage to FOH, followed by a standing audience and then “grand stand” type seating in the back.
The spec to Ultra Events was to make the show look as big as possible and to have lighting that would complement the music, said Costa Champanis, owner of Ultra Events.
“We rigged the lights in keeping with the client’s request and used our Washes on the back bar of the ground support,” explains Costa. “We suspended 8 of the 575 Robe Spots over the centre and remaining gear was rigged evenly over the rest of the roof.”
Lighting gear list comprised of: 12 x Robe 575 Spots, 12 x Robe 575 Washes, 3 x custom Bars of six; 3 crowd blinders; 2 x atomic Strobes, 2 x antari smoke machines with control by an Avolites Pearl. Lighting designer and operator for the event was Yasheen from Ultra events.
5FM NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY
Set in front of club Vaudeville in Cape Town, some 3 000 revellers attended a 5FM New Year’s Eve Street Party, a live music event put together by event planners RK Events. As you can imagine, something like this is not the simplest thing to plan.
“We had to get permission from the council, wait for traffic to end in order to shut the roads and then build and mount the structure,” said Costa. “This happens in the day, the plot we do at sunset while the doors open and strike is after the show, just in time for the roads to open to the public again at 6am.”
That says it all, doesn’t it! But Costa adds, who in this case was involved with rigging and lighting the show and says, “It was pressure, pressure, pressure, and loads of fun!”
The concept was to turn a local Cape Town street into a nightclub feel over a 20 hour period. Firstly the authorities cut-off the street to the public then for Ultra to construct a trussing ground support and build the stage, that would “house” the club dance-floor spanning 40m long x 8m wide, there-after populating the truss with sound, lighting, video and effects.
Once completed the structure was raised and secured with water ballasts the 3 x Bedouin tents where stretched over the truss to complete the concept.
Lighting gear list comprised of: 12 x robe spot 575, 12 robe was 575, 4 x robe robin beam300, 4 x 4cell audience blinders, 4 x profiles for the stage & dj box, dimmers, and control by an Avo Tiger.
“I can honestly say that our Robe fixtures have been nothing but a pleasure to work with. From the creating side of things, it makes life easier when you plot shows adding that something different ranging between the 300 Spots to the 300 Beams,” he said. “ We also recently added the 600 Wash to the Ultra family, and the one luxury I love is the touch screen and being able to fault fin using the built-in analyser. And, the beam angle is amazing, thanks guys.”
