Robe rocks at Coachella 2017
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The 125,000-capacity festival is one of the U.S.’s highest profile music and arts extravaganzas. It’s also one of the most in demand festivals, with 2017’s nearly 200,000 tickets selling out in three hours despite 52,000 more being available over the weekend than in 2016.
Steve Lieberman and Los Angeles based SJ Lighting has been involved in designing the Yuma Stage since it started six years ago and works in close conjunction with Yuma creative director Kobi Danan. Steve’s actual history with Coachella dates back to 2002 and he has been involved regularly most years since.
He’s used Robe’s Pointes on Yuma for some time, explaining that “for this stage it’s the perfect fixture – bright, lightweight and optically very clean.”
To complement this, they needed a solid LED wash unit with a great zoom and enough intensity to match the Pointe, so a natural choice in 2017 was the new Spiider. “The two fixtures work great together,” he stated.
He feels that the Spiider has really delivered, and, with the ‘flower’ and other effects, he thinks it brings “a level of dynamics over and above the typical world of wash lights.”
The lights were hung discreetly in Yuma, where there is no truss or metalwork hanging structure … instead the tent has a black liner to make the environment properly dark and fixtures are attached directly to the tent’s structural beams via custom clamps which were provided by Yuma’s lighting vendor, 4Wall.
Having used Pointes and BMFLs with great effect on the last Martin Garrix tour, Gabe Fraboni wanted a high impact “trick fixture” for his specials package for the Coachella sets, which were ahead of the launch of the artist’s spectacular new live show in May.
The 90 Spikies at Coachella were supplied by VER and rigged on an elegantly industrial trussing structure built upstage of the DJ booth. They framed a large Plus-shaped LED screen in the center which was also attached to the truss uprights.
“Spikie's were the perfect fit,” declared Gabe. “The continuous pan-and-tilt, flower effect and the prism gave the ‘trick’ elements I needed to keep up with the frenetic pace of Martin’s set.”
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is currently staged annually in April over two weekends in the Palm Springs area, around 125 miles east of L.A.
(Jim Evans)
