The Zagreb Festival attracts a wide range of national and local singing talent (photo: Samir Cerić Kovačević)
Croatia - The Zagreb Festival, the oldest entertainment music festival in Croatia, was modelled on the famous Sanremo Festival and is a significant event on the calendar for composers and songwriters and attracts a wide range of national and local singing talent.
Lighting, set and visuals were designed this year by Miro Hrg, with the full production technical package - including a complete Robe moving light rig - supplied by one of the top Croatian rental companies, Promo Logistika.
The show was broadcast live on Croatia’s National TV station, HRT (Hrvatska Radiotelevizija). Miro worked closely with their lighting director / designer Vesna Gregurević to create a stunning looking show that thrilled both a live audience in the Conference Hall at the Plaza Event Centre, Zagreb and engaged hundreds of thousands of TV viewers.
They had two full days of rehearsals for the one-day event / broadcast which saw a series of special performances and unique collaborations showcasing a huge amount of new music performed by established and emerging stars.
Promo Logistika, also based in the Croatian capital, has provided technical production for the last three festivals. Two years ago, Miro operated the lights, last year he was the set designer and this year he co-ordinated the team and delivered the full visual package.
The process started with a pooling of everyone’s ideas, including his own quite clear ones about the specification and format of the lighting.
Once they had all agreed on the stage design, he drew it in a WYSIWYG visualiser together with all lights, video elements and scenography. His colleague Sven Grbec undertook all the lighting programming in conjunction with Vesna, who gave precise instructions of what she wanted to see for each song.
She also worked alongside Promo Logistika’s video department led by Kristina Bengez and Viktor Krasnić to decide on the video look and content for each song.
Miro had recently used Robe MegaPointes and LEDBeam 150s for the first time in a massive show for legendary Croatian rockers Parni Valjak. The fixtures had only just been delivered to the company, it was their very first gig, and afterwards, with a much better idea of what they could really do, he jumped at the chance to include them on this.
Twenty-six MegaPointes and 24 x LEDBeam 150s graced the lighting plot, together with 24 x BMFL Spots, 12 x LEDWash 600s, 18 x MMX WashBeams, 8 x VIVAs and 18 x CycFX 8s.
The other new fixtures on this show were the LEDBeam 150s, also a recent acquisition by Promo Logistika.
The VIVAs had a well-defined role in the show, patterning the venue walls with gobo looks and texturing which produced depth and backgrounds for different camera angles as well as the Steadicam shots.
Either side of the stage, the CycFX 8s were arranged in two columns of nine fixtures each, attached to the scenery, bringing additional vibrancy and filling in the corner areas for those all-important back-of-camera shots. The show was programmed and run on a grandMA2 console.
(Jim Evans)

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