11.10.2017 | Stage Production Co. Dresses Solihull Summer Fest in Elation Lighting

One of the UK’s newest late summer music festivals, the Solihull Summer Fest, took place at the end of August at Tudor Grange Park outside of Birmingham. The family-friendly charity music event, held during the bank holiday weekend and only in its second year, expanded to two stages in 2017, both of which were lit by full service production company Stage Production Co. using Elation Professional lighting.

For the 2017 Solihull Summer Fest, Stage Production Co. handled all staging, lighting, rigging and power, their second year working the event. Based in Birmingham, they have stocked Elation lighting for several years and are scheduled to supply the event again in 2018. “We choose Elation because of the reliability – they work!” exclaimed Stage Production’s Jordan Lake, who handled production design on the event. “They are also sensibly priced and once clients see them in action they tend to request them.”

The festival featured pop performers, including headliner Peter Andre, bands and a dance fest with 8-9,000 dancing kids on the festival’s final day. The festival’s Main Stage, an effective four-line overhead horizontal truss configuration with vertical side and upstage grids, held 16 Rayzor Q12™ LED moving heads, 18 Platinum Beam 5R Extreme™ beam lights, 16 Protron 3K™ LED strobes and 8 Cuepix Blinders™, as well as other lighting. The second stage featured 12 ACL 360 Matrix™ LED moving panels, 8 Platinum Beam 5R Extremes and 4 Protron 3K LED strobes. Lighting was flown on a Duratruss system. Lighting programming was by Ben Butler.

“We placed the Rayzor Q12s on quick grid frames on the Main Stage, where they really packed a punch,” Jordan said of the compact RGBW color-changing moving heads. “The Protron strobes are actually my favorite Elation product though. They are bright and clean and look great with a great sparkle effect.” The Cuepix Blinders, used on the Main Stage as eye-candy blinders, are easy to use and can be put anywhere, he says.

The ACL 360 Matrix fixtures, a highlight visual element of the second stage, are “brilliant and great for pixel map effects,” Jordan states. Using 25 individual 15W RGBW LEDs and with a tight 4-degree beam from each lens, the fixture’s continuous 360-degree movement and individual pixel control make a variety of dynamic effects possible. Elation’s industry staple Platinum Beam 5R Extremes provided the eye-catching barrage of narrow beams when high-impact looks were needed on both stages.

All profits from the 2017 event went to the Help Harry Help Others cancer support charity (www.hhho.org.uk).