Fineline Lighting supplied lighting and rigging including ground support systems to five popular, action-packed stages at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. This included the Acoustic, Cabaret, Circus, Astrolabe Stages and HMS WOW at the world’s largest and highest profile green field music and entertainment festival … which took place last weekend in Somerset, UK.

The project this year involved over 130 moving heads and over 350 conventional lighting fixtures from Fineline – utilizing moving light products from Martin, Robe and High End Systems plus Avolites and ChamSys control and Martin LED products, together with 38 crew, who rocked up at Worthy Farm in Pilton for the week that culminated in four days of fun and nearly 200 full-scale performances lit by Fineline’s team.

Fineline has been involved with supplying lighting to Glastonbury for over 20 years, and MD Rob Sangwell says, “We all love working at Glasto. ‘It’s grown enormously in recent years but still retains a very special and unique atmosphere. While it is a challenging environment for staging the high levels of production required, as a locally based company, for us there is an additional resonance, all of which makes us very proud to be involved”.


Although the weather has even become a trending national news topic in relation to the festival, Fineline now doesn’t even look at the forecast! They are fully prepared whatever the weather and going and working whatever is the case!

Acoustic Stage

This always features an eclectic selection of bands and musicians – anything from a solo to guitarist to a full multi-instrumental band– so flexibility is the key to lighting the stage explains Fineline MD Rob Sangwell, who is also Artistic Director for the Acoustic’s technical production.

There are not actually so many purely ‘acoustic’ acts appearing there now – the name was coined as an antithesis to the synthesiser-tastic sounds that dominated the 1980s when the Acoustic concept was first launched at the Festival. So it was essentially lit as a rock ‘n roll set up, complete with a ground support system which was installed to give all the requisite lighting positions.

This year, Rob and his colleagues also brought a theatrical vibe to the stage with a set of lush red velvet drapes and décor to conceal the metal work and soften the appearance of the environment.

Lighting was designed by Stuart England. The chosen fixtures included Martin MAC Viper Profiles, MAC Aura and MAC 101 LED wash lights, together with Robe LEDBeam 100s and PARs, all controlled from an Avolites Sapphire Touch console operated by Simon Johnson. They were joined by Fineline technician Callum Ostell.

Circus

Glasto’s Circus Stage has one of the liveliest line-ups and is one of the most universally popular stages across the site, offering entertainment for everyone.

Lighting here has to be exciting, edgy and deal with a dynamic array of performances, many of them experimental – form the surreal to the bizarre and everything in between!
A general combination of wash lights and specials – Primarily Robe 600E Spots, LEDWash 600s and CycFx 8s - was installed on the deck and across four flown trusses. These were joined by a heterogeneity of PARs, ETCSource Fours and fresnels.

The many aerial acts also needed some special treatment so, specifically for this, Fineline supplied some of their new CycFX 8 fixtures from Robe. These were positioned on the floor around the stage and used as kickers,and due to the motorized tilt and zoom could also be used to light the aerial work.

LD James Loudon and Chief LX Rob Watson were joined by Will Dale and Charlie Denny.

Astrolabe

This area also features a highly acclaimed programme each year running back-to-back throughout the festival event, all needing to have the staging facilities that they might expect to find on a more traditional venue.

Fineline supplied a ‘house’ lighting rig designed by Hal Himsworth which had to meet the different technical riders and allow these performances to happen in a field just the same as they would in an arts centre or city centre theatre.

A temporary four-legged ground support structure was built inplace of a traditional black-box flying system and this was populated with amix of moving lights and conventionals.

With lightning-quick change overs between performances, a major requirement is for crew to be able to refocus and adjust lights quickly and easily.

In addition to a large selection of conventional theatrical fixtures, the kit included SGM Spot moving lights and Palco LED floods, Showtec Sunstrips and a plethora of LED PARs for specific acts.

Fineline’s rigger was Chris Randall and the techs were Bruno Carr, Lee Stone and Ben Motz.

Cabaret

Over in the cabaret stage, Fineline’s Wingnut created the lighting design and worked with Chief LX Rachael Moule and technicians Croat Henniger and Adam McNally.

Equipment included Robe LEDWash 600s, High End Spots, PARs and Source Fours, and Fineline also supplied Martin LC Plus Series video panels and a Martin Maxedia media server which ran all the video content. All Lighting and Pixel-mapped LED décorelements, also supplied by Fineline were run via an Avolites Tiger Touch console and powered by Avolites Art2000 dimmers.

WOW Stage

A raft of underground DJs and dance sounds vibed up the house for all boarding the good ship WOW for four days of seriously excellent boat parties curated by Team Love, who are also behind Bristol’s ‘Love Saves The Day’ downtown festival where Fineline lit the main stage this year.

By complete contrast, Glasto could not have been less urban!

Fineline’s kit list for this tented venue and large outdoor space featuring the massive HMS Wow ship included High End moving lights and ChamSys control, together with a bunch of the tiny Robe LED Beam 100s, High End moving-mirror lights, LED PARs Sunstrips and LED Battens, all of which were pixel mapped. WOW stage LD James Harrington of Team Love adds, “We are really happy to have had Fineline supplying the kit for the WOW Stage this year. The kit’s good and the Fineline team are great to work with.”

Fineline Lighting are proud to support up and coming Athlete Anna Holmes. Anna has been training as a bobsleigh driver for the last 3 years and has been offered an opportunity to participate in the women`s bobsleigh at this year’s British Championship.

The Outlook Festival is staged over four days in the beautiful and slightly desolate environs of Fort Punta Christo just outside Pula, the main city on Croatia’s bustling Istrian coastline, known for its mild climate, smooth sea and unspoiled nature.

Outlook – this was the seventh edition - features the largest collection of dub step, bass music and Sound system Culture in Europe with an action-packed line up uniting some of the biggest names from these vibrant dance genres.

Each year the production values increase and become more demanding in line with the success of the event itself. This year, the 15,000 capacity Outlook saw over 400 international acts perform.

The main Harbour Stage was nestled into one of the Adriatic’s many scenic sea-side coves and could accommodate audiences of up to around 7000. The second stage was located in The Clearing, mid way across site which was accessed by a network of dirt tracks. (For the smaller capacity Dimensions Festival, The Clearing had been the main stage)

On the opposite side of the site to the Harbour was The Beach area, complete with the Beach Party stage directly on the waterfront which fired up every afternoon and ran until the main two stages and the Fort, with its seven live areas, kicked off at 8 p.m. each night. Farther along the waterfront from this was the camp site.

The late 19th century fort, Pula’s first line of defence during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, presented an eclectic collection of seven ‘pop-up’performance spaces all ensconced in and around the charismatic ruins of the extensive fort. These ranged from the 75 capacity Ballroom to the 1500 capacity Void Stage.

The most galvanising aspects of working at Fort Punta Christo were the unforgiving and difficult to negotiate topography and its own micro-climate. During the build and changeover, crews had to contend with 120 Km-an-hour winds, sudden and violent electrical storms and driving rains … as well as enjoying the late summer sunshine and warmth for which the region is renowned.

It’s also a gruelling project for all site staff and crew, with long and intense working hours, no days off or breaks between the two events and multiple music stages operating simultaneously across a large geographical area.

Treading A Fineline

It’s the third year that Fineline Lighting has been involved with supplying lighting and rigging for the Festival– and their first supplying all eight major performance stages plus all the Fort’s environmental and architectural components including trees, bushes, landscape and historical features.

Fineline’s MD Rob Sangwell this year took on an additional dual role as Production Manager for The Fort, and the company also supplied all the rigging, trussing and motors required for all areas and created lighting production designs for the eight stages.

Fineline’s crew of 10 were Chiefed by Stu England and also included Rob Watson, Nick Ayres, Wingnut, Will Dale,Sam Kenyon, Adam Morris, Johnny Westal & James Box.

Harbour Stage

Fineline asked LD Nic Ayres to design and operate lights on the main Harbour Stage, which included a live mix of reggae, dub and dance hall stars as well as a selection of DJs, so his objective was to create a fabulous, flexible and dynamic visual space, which he approached utilizing curves and spheres.

The roof structure was an 18 metre wide dome from Nüssli with plenty of capacity for flying, so several trusses were sub-hung, including a vertical circular truss with a screen stretched across the middle for projecting video & gobos, flanked by two circular sections either side and another vertically hung curved mid-truss immediately in front.

The front truss – horizontally flown - was also circular, and below this either side of stage were two curved towers, their bases on the deck. All of these structural elements brought depth to the stage design when viewed from any angle. The moving lights were nearly all Robe - 12 x Robe Spot 600Es and 12 x Wash 600Es, 12 x Pointe multi-purpose fixtures and 8 x LED Beam 100s, which were rigged all over the trussing framework, with an additional 8 Sharpies on the deck.

These were joined by 10 x 6-lamp PAR bars, eight Atomic strobes plus a splattering of single LED PARs used to tone the trusses and reveal the architecture, plus 8-lites and 2-lite blinders.

Control was an Avolites TigerTouch console and Avo dimming, and Ayres ran the stage with his Fineline LXChief, Rob Watson.

Fineline also provided all rigging and motors to fly the PA arrays.

The Clearing

Two straight trusses were installed underneath this Layher structure and rigged with 8 x Robe LED Wash 600s, 8 x Robe 600E Spots and four Pointes for the moving light compliment, joined by four 6-lamp bars, six Atomic strobes and eight 2-lites.

Another eight Robe Pointes were positioned on the floor and an additional package of 9 x Sharpies was available as a floor package for specific artists.

Control was more Avo dimmers and Will Dale and Adam Morris programmed and ran lights on a ChamSys MQ100 console with a SnakeSys R8 node.

The Fort

The magnificent Fort building carved into the rock covers 10,000 square metres and comprises a rabbit warren of tunnels and underground rooms. Those utilized for the festival only scratch the surface of what is actually there.

The eclectic collection of Outlook spaces all needed completely bespoke lighting solutions involving a good deal of lateral thinking! “The basic brief in terms of ‘lighting ambience ’was to make it look and feel like a series of random parties happening across the fort – organised but with a raw, makeshift and exciting edge, also integrating as much of the Fort as possible, ” explains Sangwell.

Of these, The Void was the largest with a 10 x 8 metre conventional stage /roof. A scenic metal-clad stage set was created by NVS Promotions’ Art Team, and Fineline’s moving light package comprised Robe LED Wash 600s, Robe 600E Spots, High End Studio Spots, Studio Beams, Atomic Strobes and 4-lamp bars, with SGM Palco LED floods up-lighting the steel structure.

For the Mungo’s Hi Fi Soundsystem area Fineline supplied and erected a small dome stage with a stretched fabric roof which fitted into the space perfectly and neatly without involving too much exposed metal work, with Robe 600 Spots, 600LED washes, Atomic Strobes and Pars hung directly off this structure to keep everything tidy.

The Garden Stage had a small steel stage and DJ set up near the entrance to the Fort which was covered in foliage by the Art Team and illuminated by a selection of Palco LED Floods & PARs. PARs, Profiles & Effects Projectors were rigged in the trees in and around The Garden to add mood to the audience area, and several art works were also lit.

The Moat was another challenging space to light. The stage was at the end of a long narrow trench with high stone walls once part of the Fort’s original deep moat. The organisers didn’t want to see any trussing or metalwork over the moat, so long throw lights were used including 8 x Robe Pointes, four mounted on a scaffolding structure above the stage and four actually onstage, firing down the moat and into the audience.

Arena 1 featured another stretched roof and a simple truss tower structure above the DJ booth, complete with PARs and low-level lighting. In here, Fineline worked closely with projection specialists Lumen Artist from Budapest, who created a series of stunning hand painted slides that were projected all down both sides of the arena. New slides were created for each night of the festival, providing a softer and eye-catching dynamic.

The tiny Ballroom was located in a funky cylindrical space built out of rocks, with high walls, no roof and a series of trees and the skies above which also became part of the aesthetics. The lighting brought an old skool free party feel, with vintage fixtures to match including High End Trackspots, Martin Destroyers, Optikinetics Solar 250s and other classics. Some of these were rigged on a convenient shelf in the rock-face at the top of the walls. The trees above were suitably lit to complete the visual horizon.

Environmental Lighting

A substantial part of Fineline’s equipment package was devoted to this task and spread over a large area.
A combination of imagination and common sense informed their approach to lighting the architecture and natural flora and fauna of the Fort and included in this detail was illuminating all the main signage and various art works installed by the organisers.

It was a long-winded task due to the physical distances that lights had to be deployed and cables had to be run, but one that brought fantastic results, adding plenty of ambience and magic to the scene.

Sangwell explains that they made as much use as possible of theatrical techniques like shadowing and silhouetting against the Fort’s stone elements, and generally lit strategic hedges, bushes and trees to make the whole Dimensions / Outlook Fort experience more immersive and have a special aura.

Over half a truck’s worth of space was taken up with the architectural lighting which was mostly PARs and Source Fours, the entire range of MBI floods, plus an assortment of flickerwheels, gobo rotators and other theatrical animation effects, including a load of colour-changing LED fixtures and two Studio Due Dominators to crown the summit of the Fort.

Sangwell comments, “We all really enjoyed working on Outlook again. It is extremely hard work, but with great people in all the production departments, some fantastic teamwork and a truly special location, I think this production is a real achievement and something we can all be extremely proud of”.

Bristol, UK, based lighting rental specialist Fineline Lighting is supplying all house lighting & rigging to Motion – one of the most popular multi-room clubbing experiences in the UK, located in a atmospherically significant collection of historic warehouses in central Bristol, and with a reputation for showcasing some of the best EDM sounds on the planet.

Hand-in-hand with this goes a big commitment to providing the very best in production values for Motion clients, explains Head of Lighting James Harrington, who asked Fineline onboard as the regular lighting and rigging supplier in 2011, having known the company for many years.

Fineline supplies a standard ‘house’ lighting rig to the venue which has a capacity for up to 2,500 people depending on how many of its multiple spaces are opened, and this is regularly augmented with extras and specials as and when needed.

“I wanted a reliable rental company with a good reputation and a wide variety of equipment to supply every eventuality,” stated Harrington.

The busiest season for additional kit is the September to New Year’s Eve ‘Bristol in Motion’ phenomena, which capitalizes on the college Fresher’s season … that sees the place action-packed with excitement, energy and superlative music every Friday and Saturday.

Motion has to be fully flexible to deal with a heterogeneity of different club nights hosted by their own promoters bringing in their own DJs and acts, plus touring artists and organizations like the BBC who sometimes broadcast live from the venue.
The basic house lighting rig in the main room comprises a ground support system with two of the legs lifted and supported by the large industrial crane left in situ when it last ceased to be a working warehouse.

As a minimum there are around eight moving lights and eight scanners hung on the ground support and these and other lighting are all run off a ChamSys PC Wing for most of the year which is upped to an MQ100 from Fineline to deal with the additional kit for Bristol In Motion.

Extra lighting kit – anything from strobes to LED battens to full moving light rigs and LED video screens – comes in and out constantly every other week from Fineline.

“All of Fineline’s kit is well maintained,” continues Harrington who explains that they don’t necessarily have a preference for specific brands of moving lights or LED fixtures and trust Fineline to fulfil their creative needs, often leaving the choice of what specific equipment is appropriate for the upcoming show to Rob Sangwell and the Fineline team.

Sangwell, MD of Fineline comments, “We love working with Motion and have known the people involved for several years. Their reputation and success is not just built on getting some of the hottest new and rising DJ talent alongside internationally known acts to Motion, but also on offering audiences the very best lighting and visual shows in the area. It’s definitely a winning formula and we are looking forward to the 2014 season”.

Bristol UK based lighting and rigging rental specialists Fineline celebrates the start of 2014 with a rebranding exercise, complete with a new-look logo and website to consolidate a last quarter investment strategy that is focused on offering new and innovative technologies and imaginative solutions to its growing portfolio of clients.

2014 is the third year that Fineline – originally established in 1988 – has been running under new, lively and energetic independent ownership, with a management team led by MD Rob Sangwell.

The company has built up a reputation as a leading lighting and visuals facility in the South West region – encapsulated in the new strap-line‘Professional-Creative-Trusted’ - and works nationwide in the UK and world wide internationally.

Sangwell explains, “Three years ago, a new era in Fineline’s history was launched with the buy-out and implementation of a new management structure with a completely fresh outlook. We’ve grown steadily throughout that period, and are now moving forward to the next level, ramping up the business in readiness for a busy2014.

“Alongside that, we are really proud that the Fineline brand has been going strong for 25years”.

Over the last three years Fineline’s equipment inventory has been expanded and brought bang up to date with constant investment, the latest intelligent lights, effects, LED lighting and control technology.

Another major round of purchases came at the end of 2013, with new equipment including Robe’s popular Pointe multi-purpose movinglight , Miltech MTC Batten 2 LED strips, Avolites’ Tiger Touch control consoles and a selection of trussing and motors.

Earlier in the autumn, a custom PA tower system was designed, fabricated and added to Fineline’s hire stock.

A new apprenticeship scheme run in conjunction with Bridgewater College will commence in Spring, as Fineline is dedicated to providing career opportunities for young people who want a start in the industry. They will continue to run their own regular rigging training courses with local partners which have recently included the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Weston College, Weston Super Mare.

The new clean and stylish website will mirror the streamlining of the operation. It is highly visual and action packed with case studies, project reports and profiles.

The remodeled logo is a careful blend of classic and contemporary to celebrate the new wave and recognize the history that has made the name a successful and respected brand.

In the last year, Fineline has supplied lighting and visuals to a host of shows and events including the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, The Eden Sessions, the Shambala Festival, the Outlook Festival and many more as well as servicing a host of corporate clients with brand activations, conferences, award ceremonies and gala dinners.