Two stages, four nights and a desert site where the wind is a production department of its own.
The festival season ends with a debrief, and the 2025 edition gave us a long list. The headline numbers: two stages supplied from our own stock, four nights of programming, and a wind plan that was used twice.
Sound in a desert
Open sites lose low end in every direction, so the main stage was modelled in three deployments before the rig was flown. The measurement pass after build found a 4 dB dip at the mix position that the model had predicted but under-stated; moving two hangs by a metre fixed it before the first sound check.
The effects window
Fireworks and flame cues were driven from the same timecode as lighting and video, with a manual hold rehearsed in the afternoon and a second operator watching the wind gauge. Both nights where the plan was used, the abbreviated version ran and the audience never noticed a difference.
Load-out took eleven hours with a crew of thirty-four, which is the number we now plan the following season against.