During a public lecture held at Cornell University on October 13, 1994, the beloved astronomer and purveyor of cosmic truth Carl Sagan presented an image of Earth to the audience, as seen from six billion kilometres away. Within his widely circulated reflections upon the image’s implications for humanity, he famously referred to our pathetic little nerd of a planet as a ‘a pale blue dot’, providing both a friendly reminder that our lives are unfathomably pointless, and more importantly a name for the new Bluedot Festival. Taking place at Cheshire’s Jodrell Bank Observatory from July 22 – 24, the festival…
Author: Michael Baker
UK: Global RFID technology company Glownet and RFID accreditation specialists ID&C delivered a state of the art cashless payment system at the inaugural FOLD Festival in London from June 24 – 26. Curated by Chic’s Nile Rodgers, FOLD (Freak Out Let’s Dance) issued its 7000 festivalgoers with innovative ‘digital’ laminate passes, enabling fans to make lightning-speed transactions at the food and drink concessions, while creating a secure, cashless environment. Guests were able to add money to their pass at one of the available top-up stations, before using it to make cashless purchases. The RFID passes and high tech system also…
USA: New York based live sound production company Audio Images Sound & Lighting recently deployed JBL’s VTX Series speakers – powered by Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers – to deliver powerful live sound at the inaugural Rock’n Derby music festival in upstate New York. The JBL VTX V25-II arrays delivered incredibly clean output and high SPL to complement exciting performances by some of the world’s biggest hard rock bands. This combination of advanced power and exceptional high-frequency performance enabled Audio Images to provide an intense and high-impact concert experience for more than 15,000 music fans. “The VTX is a lot clearer…
UK: This year’s Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) will return to Olympia London from August 9 – 13, with everything from limited edition brews and one-off specials to award-winning favourites from microbreweries across the UK and even an American cask beer bar unique to the festival. With more than 900 real ales, ciders, perries and international beers, there’s something for everybody. Many of Britain’s most recognisable breweries will run their own bars at the event, including Charles Wells, Fuller’s, St Austell and Wadworth. More than 350 breweries are represented on the CAMRA bars, including those in the Champion Beer of…
Since 2006, the YES Group has organised over 20 Health, Safety and Crowd Management seminars for festival and event staff across Europe in cooperation with a range of global experts and companies. The seminars all focus on the development of professionalisation and the unification of operations at festivals and events to enable all of those involved in the industry to provide and promote safer events. The YES Group also contributes to the European Festivals Conference and the European Festival Awards. The group led by Henrik Nielsen (Roskilde Festival) and Chris Kemp (Mind Over Matter) ably supported by Gerard von Duykeren…
GERMANY: Complete Audio recently returned to the main stage at Kosmonaut Festival in Saxony, which it has been servicing since the inaugural event in 2014. The fact that the company is now fielding its award-winning Martin Audio MLA system shows how far the event has come since the band Kraftklub set up the preliminary event in Chemnitz as a mini-festival on a flatbed truck, with speakers on sticks providing the PA. Complete Audio MD André Rauhut said: “Since all the major acts were bands that we take care of on the road, MLA was the obvious system.” He added that…
UK: Avolites’ lighting consoles, dimmers and media servers once again delivered robust, festival-proof performance to shows across Glastonbury’s vast and varied musical programme from June 22 – 26. For nearly 40 years, Avolites equipment has been found surviving the mud in each corner of the Worthy Farm takeover. This year the British manufacturer’s consoles and media servers were not only used on the main stages such as the Pyramid (which was also powered by Avolites ART2000 dimmers), the Other, John Peel, West Holts, and the Acoustic Stage, but also Arcadia Spectacular and The Temple immersive dance environments, plus afterhours areas…
UK: To provide a helping hand to street food vendors at both large festivals and smaller local events, TEAL Patents – the leading manufacturer of portable hand washing solutions that require no access to mains water or drainage – is working with the Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) to assist its members with any hand hygiene issues. Launching this summer, TEAL has developed the Streetwash range to provide better access to hand washing for mobile vendors, outdoor caterers and their customers. Bob Fox, the Chairman of NCASS, said: “When you’re in the mobile catering business, hygiene has to be a top…
John Bownas is Editor-in-Chief at VirtualFestivals.com and has been a lead contributor to the site since it started in 1999. During that time he also helped establish the foundation of the UK Festival Awards. As well as booking acts for several years at Glastonbury’s Leftfield and for the last decade at Beautiful Days’ Bandstand he’s also stage managed and compered numerous festival stages, run two Oxjam takeovers, and created (and curated) Croydon’s Ambition Festival. We’ve all experienced it – stumbling across our new favourite band in a quiet corner of a festival field. There is something lovely about spending half…
Lovebox celebrated its 12th year as a two-day festival at London’s Victoria Park this July, and featured performances from the newly reunited LCD Soundsystem, Australian electronica sensation Chet Faker, and hip-hop super duo Run the Jewels. The world famous London nightclub Fabric teamed up with Pioneer Pro Audio to assemble its sound system for Lovebox, marking its first-ever outdoor event. The Fabric arena was a 2000-capacity, 38-metre round tent designed to recreate Fabric’s Room One, giving festivalgoers a true nightclub experience within a festival site, and was the only stage at Lovebox to commission an exclusive pro audio partner. Both…