The 2019 Hype O Dream festival, which featured performances by Nico Morano and Cherry Moon Trax
Belgium - Route 66 - the symbol of the American free spirit - served as an appropriate backdrop for the 2019 Hype-O-Dream festival, which featured EDM performances by stars like Nico Morano and Cherry Moon Trax. Bringing this thematic setting to life was a dynamic festival lighting rig designed and developed by Lieven Tacq, Thomas Vandekerkhove and their team at Creative Rental Solutions that featured over 470 Chauvet Professional fixtures.
Having worked on seven previous Hype-O-Dream festivals, Tacq and Vandekerkhove are familiar with the role that bold, original scenic designs play in creating the overall fan experience at these events. This year, at the centre of the impressive main stage was a massive video wall, flanked by Route 66 signs and other thematic scenic elements, such as mountains, gas stations and billboards.
Route 66 is also strongly associated with neon lighting, and Tacq played on this link for the Flashback stage by using 270 ÉPIX strip IP fixtures to create neon-like looks throughout the sprawling set.
“We adorned the entire trussing structure with ÉPIX Strips to emulate that neon glow that is so typical of those classic route 66 motel and diner images,” he says. “The saturated colours we got from the strips provided a convincing neon feel and atmosphere. Our main colour was the beautiful cyan, which is also one of the standard colours in the programme settings of my ChamSys MagicQ MQ500. As a result, we were able to create that incredible neon effect right out of the box.”
Contributing to the evocative mood on the main stage were the deeply saturated colours Tacq created with 60 COLORdash Par H12 IP, 24 COLORado Q40 and 24 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures. A collection of 12 Maverick MK2 Spot and 24 Rogue RH1 Hybrid units also added to an onstage colour display that was as wide and varied as America’s vast landscape.
In addition to colourising the backdrop, the Maverick MK2 Spot and Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures create aerial effects during DJ performances, while also engaging the crowd with sweeping audience lighting.
To award the signage elements with an additional authentic look while simultaneously integrating audience blinding and strobe effects into the DJ sets, Tacq utilised 57 STRIKE fixtures, which were positioned strategically around various signage elements throughout the 100m wide central stage.
(Jim Evans)

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