Gibonni plays Zagreb (photo: LumiLas)
Croatia - Singer-songwriter and composer Gibonni played two major arena concerts in Zagreb that sold out in minutes, with over 40,000 fans flocking to see the showman where they were treated to a spectacular stage and lighting design by Sven Kučinić involving 140 Robe moving lights.
These high-profile shows signalled the kick-off of a tour by the artist which will continue later in the year.
A series of scenic set pieces was designed by Neven Stojakovic based on the theme of clocks – an idea from Gibonni himself – and time, loosely related to and translated from the title of the last album. Using these as references, Sven added the trussing and lighting, and in collaboration with Neven, developed the shapes and placement of the fragmented LED screens.
For these shows and the subsequent tour, he wanted the lighting to have a more theatrical and dramatic feel and be closer stylistically to a musical theatre performance than a pop show.
He created five inverted T-shaped pendulum-like trusses hanging down from the roof to get lighting positions spread out at different levels, with five different sized and shaped ‘fragmented’ LED screens, part flown, and part ground supported, filling in the lower half of the upstage wall behind the set.
The lighting supplier was Promologistika, one of Croatia’s leading and biggest rental and production companies, which has a large Robe inventory that Sven was happy to use.
He was especially excited to be using 24 brand new Fortes which arrived just in time for Promologistika to get on the gig, together with 24 new Spiiders which were delivered at the same time via Robe’s Croatian distributor, LAV Studio.
Sven positioned the Fortes on the over-stage trusses where they were primarily used as FX spots. While they didn’t physically move much, they were a key visual ingredient of the show and Sven made full use of their power. “They were perfect for animating the clock set pieces down below,” he declared.
Fortes were also used to project gobos onto the backdrop which brought extra depth and width to the stage, and they were key fixtures in what Sven was determined to keep as a straightforward design.
Twenty-four of the 40 x MegaPointes were rigged on four of the pendulum cross bars with the rest on the floor, so they were spread out for those stunning beam effects. As you would expect, they were the main effects lights of the show, and they worked all the time to create the numerous big, bold looks that matched and contrasted with the video content and characterised the performance.
The central pendulum bar was populated by six Spiiders.
One of the initial ideas was to have 24 x BMFL Spots upstage blasting through the scenic clocks from behind, but the fixtures ended up being moved to the top rig, right above the backdrop.
MMX WashBeams were scattered around the front truss for specials, and to boost the cross stage side lighting each side, there was a bar of six LEDWash 600+s.
Sven also used two Fortes as manually controlled follows spots, fitted with the LightMaster handle kits, and linked to his grandMA3 console for controlling of most parameters.
Sven ran all the lighting, which also included some LED washes, blinders and strobes, from the grandMA3.
The crew included head of lighting Boris Zigic and Promologistika CEO Zoran Biškupić, who is frequently on site for major projects. Video was also supplied by Promologistika.
The playback content was designed by Marina Uzelac, and the playback co-ordinated, programmed and operated by Promologisitka’s head of video, Kristina Bengez with some additional input from Sven. The live camera / IMAG director was Viktor Krasnic.

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