The Angry Beard Festival

1. THE BRIEF

Our MD’s 40th was approaching fast and through the office we heard the rumblings of a mini festival event.

The location for this was at his house in the rather large back garden. We needed to create a large screen for a movie night, as well as a stage for bands and smaller acts. We also provided ambient and area lighting for the evenings.

This job came with all the usual challenges involved with an outdoor event. But we tackled it the same as any other client. We were aware that this particular client was going to be a tough one to please.

2. THE PREFACE

The event was a 3-day celebration planned to start on a Friday evening with a film screening. Following this was the main party on Saturday through to Sunday.

There was camping to consider as many guests brought their tents. There was an entertainment area for competitions such as axe throwing, and an all-day BBQ. We had a pool to work around and of course the weather elements to consider.

We were all bracing for a shocking weekend weather-wise with reports of near-constant rain. While that didn’t dampen our spirits, it did mean we had to consider the wet weather in our preparations. Guests were even planning to bring some good old wellies.

3. THE EVENT

Entertainment for the event ranged from big screen viewing, to live and dance floor music.

We had a 4m wide video wall with a full 3 over 2 D&B t10/b4 PA as well as 6 boxes of 6 SmartBat up-lighters. We controlled everything from a 3×3 marquee with control leading to a large stretch tent.

Fuelled by tea, the team set up an LED video wall in the rain. It was positioned so that it was visible from within the pre-erected marquee. This was primarily for the film. We used it for the rest of the weekend for Patrick’s own Angry Beard visuals fed from our media servers for the party. All this needed quite a bit of power, so we tapped into the fuse box in the house to give us what we needed.

Everything needed to go down the side of the house, which was a hair too narrow for a lot of the boxes. This meant we had quite a sweaty and grueling load in! It was all worth it for the constant supply of BBQ and beer though later on.

Along with the primary production team, most of the Perception team were in attendance. This meant that a lot of our technicians were there to help operate the video wall, the PA system, and the lighting. All the lighting was pre-addressed during the day, so they were ready to be put out and used straight away in the evening.

We are happy to say that our usual hands-on boss seemed perfectly happy to let the weekend unfold with minimal interference. This is really a credit to the team involved.

4. THE FEEDBACK

Everyone enjoyed the event; be they guest or Perception staff. We hope to repeat it on a larger scale next year.