If there’s one thing constant about the weather, it’s that nothing about it is constant. John Garberson and the production team at Creative BackStage learned this less first hand at Phoenix’s Zona festival.  

According to the National Weather Bureau, Phoenix is the second driest city in the USA, trailing only Las Vegas. Back in 1972, the city went 160 days without a drop of rain falling. Leading up to the Zona Festival, Garberson saw the forecast calling for some rain and took some precautions, like bagging his non-IP65 fixtures in his rig. But nothing could have prepared the production crew for the storm of biblical proportions that struck on day one of the festival.  

Phoenix got over three-quarters of an inch of rain that day, breaking a record that had stood for 115 years. The downpour not only soaked the production crew, fans and some of the performers to the bone, it also turned the festival site into a field of mud. Nevertheless, thanks to some quick action, the festival came off as scheduled with stellar performances by Portugal The Man, Beach House, Bleachers and Japanese Breakfast. Garberson talked to us how he and his team triumphed over the elements to ensure that in this festival the  rallying cry of  “the show, not only must go on,” was lived up to.  

Phoenix had record breaking rain right before the festival and as it started. Was this in the forecast? If so, did you make any advance preparations for set up? 

“Like all outdoor events we do, we are always looking at the weather. We started to track this storm about seven days out.  Then we went  rain mode when we started prepping gear and supplies. Unfortunately, we did not have any IP rated fixtures on this festival so we planned on bagging lights placing them in better positions so they would not get wet. We planned out riding all distros and power under the stages.   So, in the end, the forecast was for some light rains, but mother nature like to play tricks, and she got us good on this festival.”  

How many stages did you set up? Did you build them in the rain? 

“We had Four stages on this festival, From Large to mid-size, to small, to one tiny non roof one. We knew some rain was coming, but luckily the setup days were

 nice and sunny and bright — just all-around nice weather.”  

Did you change your set up at all due to the weather? Did you use fewer fixtures or position any fixtures differently than you would have otherwise? 

“We tried to position them in better places, so there would be less chance of them being rained on. But we stuck to our original fixture count.”  

You mentioned that in Day 2 the festival grounds were a field of mud. Did that impact your work? How did you address it? 

“Let’s take a step back to setup days, these three days are awesome, sunny and great weather. We knew some rain was coming for the first day, Saturday,  and we knew it was going to last all day and maybe into the night. So, the night before doors we bagged all the front lights and prepped all cables and power for rain and left.  

 “The next morning at about eight, we ran into some light rain, not bad rain, but enough to make sound checks rough. Each stage had about six bands per day for this two-day festival. Only the last three bands on each stage got a sound check in the morning. So, there was a lot of backline gear per stage, we also had ground lighting for different bands, which we also had to store off stage until needed. The rain started to become heavier, and would not let up. I think about ten that morning, we and our client  had to reach out to our partner company that was down the street that rents popup tents for back stages. I think they brough us about 20 tents. We started to build tent city in back of the main and 2nd stage area as the tents we had setup already was not enough.  

“As the day goes on, the doors open up and there were people, lots of them! This was a rain and shine show, so everyone was like ‘let’s do this!’ The bands started to play, people started to enjoy, but it was raining still. Few hours into doors each stage roof had a small leak dripping water right by the artist. Rain still coming down, but something was different about this, The people are wet but they are having fun and enjoying the music. The artists themselves did not care about the rain, they played for the fans and they all put on a great show.  

“The production staff and promotor staff were all professionals and the rain did not get any of us down. We were there to put on a show rain or shine and we did — and we all enjoyed it too! 

“Night time first day starts to come and from all the people in front and back stage the grass starts to turn into MUD, not little mud, but slippery mud. This mud was everywhere! Then   start to get tracked on the stage and covered the stage docks. People in front started to be all muddy, and the rains still continued.” 

 That was the first day. Can you tell us what happened after that? 

“When the first day ended the rains kept falling until about 1am. So, it was rain for about 19 hours straight.  On the second day, it was clear, no rain, but the mud stayed around, which turned the day into a mud-fest. It was  bad, as the grass was gone and the mud was there to stay. But the second day was a great event again,  everyone enjoyed it!  We had the headliner’s 53-foot semi struck in the mud for the first night, and it took a tow truck about 4 hours to free it. That caused  major issues loading in on day two.  

“Then, the  city steeped in halfway  through the second day,  and told us we could not move the mobile stages out until two days later to let the mud dry out. They did this because the city paid all this money to have the park with new grass at the site for the Super Bowl festival. They did not think about the Zona fest being there first! . The city came back in and decided the park was destroyed and the promotor had to pay to rip up all the old mud grass and replace it.”  

Wow, that’s an incredible story. Were there any lessons living through it taught you? 

“Never underestimate mother nature! The forecast call for some rain. Well, that ‘some rain’ turned a 19-hour storm. It took a month to get all the mud out of my work shoes.  You can prep for rains, but we did  not thinking that the whole park would turn into a muddy mess.  We had mud at the shop for months, we found cables just buried in mud and truss bases swallowed up by mud.  

“Despite all of this, the festival was one of the best I have ever done. The vibe, the mood, the music, the artist, the crew, the vendor, everyone enjoyed it. The rain and mud did not put us down; it just made putting on the show a tad harder, but it was a great event.  I think one of the things that made this event was it was that COVID was still fresh in everyone’s mind. The festival represented Arizona continuing to open up – people wanted it to be something special, and that’s what it was.”