Nottingham, UK – Since 2008, Nottingham’s Splendour festival has grown from humble beginnings to a major headline attraction. In previous years, artists appearing at the festival have included Madness, Scissor Sisters, Blondie, Feeder, Dizzee Rascal and The Pet Shop Boys. This year, with local scar band the Specials as the headliners, the festival’s attendance set a record at over 20,000. Also reaching new heights was the main stage’s light show, which incorporated a collection of Rogue R2 Wash fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.

On Event Production Co., the Nottingham-based production company, which has been with the festival from the very beginning, specified the Rogue fixtures for the 2015 event. Having recently added 28 CHAUVET Professional Rogue R2 Washes to its lighting inventory, On Event Production Co. decided to incorporate the pixel mappable LED fixtures into their lighting concept at the festival to provide custom looks for the headline acts on the main stage.

“Part of our Production team, Chris and Adam, spent some time with Chauvet at the Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt, where they were first introduced to the Rogue R2 Wash,” said Operations Director Paul White. “Once they got back, our Hire Manager, James Pemblington, visited the Chauvet HQ demo room and spent some time being dazzled and impressed with them too.” Pemblington added: “After chatting to the team about the quality control, spare part stock and after sales service, it was clear that these were the right choice for updating our fleet of wash lights.”

This year, On Events worked with the Specials’ LD Simon Pettitt to develop a lighting system to incorporate their requirements (based on their previous tour spec), along with the need to provide a rig that has some eye candy for the rest of the acts that are on during daylight hours. The 28 Rogue R2s were used in conjunction with other fixtures to give plenty of potential for touring LDs.

Half of the Rogue units were flown on two rows of truss, one upstage and one downstage. The upstage Rogues were used to backlight the band and for audience lighting, while the units positioned down stage were used for overhead eye candy. A collection of six Rogue fixtures were positioned on the downstage deck for audience lighting and aerial effects. The remaining eight Rogues were side mounted two apiece on four truss columns upstage to deliver stunning looks aimed at the audience.

The smooth colour mixing of the Rogue fixtures made them extremely effective in creating eye candy looks. Production Manager Pete Copeland commented: “The Rogues performed in a whole manner of different ways during the event — sometimes providing eye candy, sometimes exuberating punchy colours, and sometimes creating intensely bright beam-like showers washing the entire stage.”

Although the Rogue fixtures are feature-packed, their compact footprint proved a winner for On Events. “The Rogues are incredibly lightweight, meaning our crew are happy and trucking costs are lowered too,” said Copeland.

Their performance at the Nottingham festival earned Rogue fans in local lighting circles. “We were very proud to provide the main stage lighting for the Splendour festival in Nottingham,” concluded Copeland. “Thanks to the guys at CHAUVET, who enabled us to build up a knowledge of the quality surrounding the products, the decision to purchase the Rogue R2s was an extremely easy one.”