Over 500 Robe moving lights were supplied by three top German rental and technical production companies to four main stages at the 2024 Lollapalooza Berlin festival, organised by Live Nation and staged over two days at the Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium), proving once again that Robe is a powerful, reliable and weatherproof choice for outdoor events needing quality production lighting.
The North and South stages, the Alternative Stage and Perry’s Stage all rocked Robe this year supplied by TSE (North), the Media Resource Group – MRG (South & Perry’s) and Sound Projekt (Alternative) as around 110,000 music fans over the two days were treated to a fantastic lineup and some sizzling hot pseudo-summer September weather as the mercury pushed over 30 degrees and the sun shone brightly.
FOH crews at these main stages appreciated some special Robe Festival Fridges, supplied by Robe Germany, that were kept fully stocked up with cool water and refreshments for the crews and security staff who were on duty for long hours ensuring everyone safely enjoyed some excellent performances.
North Stage
This was physically the biggest stage at the festival – four bays deep, one more than the South Stage – with all structures supplied by Stageco.
Peter Weist was TSE’s FOH lighting ‘babysitter’, he is one of their regular freelancers, and a classic festival production lighting design was presented that would work for all the acts including headliners OneRepublic on Saturday and Sam Smith on Sunday.
The Robe fixtures included FORTEs, MegaPointes and Spiiders, all spread out over four trusses, with iFORTEs on the front truss in the most exposed positions and additional MegaPointes on the floor stretching out along the side wings.
iFORTES were picked for their “power and impact even during the daylight hours,” commented Peter, and daylight was the state for most of the festival. And while only the final headliners on each stage played in full darkness, having the lights there for all the daytime slots made a massive difference and they were essential for everyone to also look good on camera.
They also needed intense fixtures to hold their own against the large LED screen surfaces.
MegaPointes were chosen for their speed and versatility and Spiiders as a go-to wash that’s highly effective, elucidated Peter. The Spiiders were the oldest fixtures on the rig, but they were still highly effective and just “keep going and going,” said Peter, adding that he is looking forward to using the just launched iFORTE Fresnel.
Four RoboSpots were in action at FOH, paired with four iFORTE LTXs – plus a spare – rigged on an 18-metre-high tower, with the base stations located stage right by dimmer city. Peter confirms that using remote follow systems provides far better working conditions for the operators than traditional follow spots, and it also means the FOH towers can be a bit slimmer and more elegant as there is less weight to support.
They accommodated six bands each day, half of which brought their own operators / lighting directors and the other half of which were lit by Peter who worked alongside a crew of around 15 for the set up and four for the run days.
He enjoys working festivals for the great vibes and the music, especially the bands he doesn’t yet know.
TSE project manager Thomas Stütz was working on his third Lolla Berlin event, although TSE has serviced the festival right from the start with the inaugural Berlin edition in 2014. He explained that they are free to present a production lighting design that will function for all artists, and they choose to spec a lot of Robe because “everyone is happy using Robe”.
They had two-and-a-half days to get in, up and running, with a festival style de-rig / re-rig overnight to make some adjustments for incoming headliner Sam Smith.
In addition to the top rig, OneRepublic added 6 x MegaPointes under their main riser together with a bunch of strobes.
The art of designing a production rig for any festival scenario is to anticipate what the various guest LDs might want in advance, and that’s always the challenge.
TSE worked closely with production riggers Big Rig and provided all the trussing and motors they needed to fly lighting, video and audio. Screen Visions were the LED screen vendor on this stage, while TSE also supplied the d&b audio system, together with 12 crew split between sound and visual departments.
Lolla usually marks the end of summer for the Berlin-based company, and Thomas also enjoys the pervading good mood and bumping into all the industry friends and people they know at FOH, after paths have often been criss-crossing throughout the summer.
At FOH, two Robe PATT2013s were rigged in the structure to illuminate the Robe FOH Fridge which was a lifesaver and ensured everyone working in and around the lighting FOH area stayed hydrated and happy in the searing heat!
South Stage
The South and North stages were offset by around 145 degrees facing away from one another, both in the main area of the stadium and operated in ‘flip-flop’ style. They were scheduled to allow the audience plenty of time to get from one to the other.
Lighting was supplied by Media Resources Group, and included Robe iFORTEs, BMFLs and Spiiders rigged over the stage, with 8 x iFORTE LTXs at FOH for follow spots, paired with 8 x RoboSpot BaseStations under the stage.
The number due was requested by Sunday night headliners, K-pop sensation Seventeen, who brought the festival to a fabulous crescendo and close with their enthusiastic fanbase.
The standard FORTEs were rigged in the roof trusses together with the BMFLs, and the Spiiders were divided between the roof trusses, with some along the top of the side IMAG screens.
On the floor, more iFORTEs were lined up along the bottom of the wings, below the IMAG screens – these exposed positions were an ideal place for IP rated fixtures – and upstage on the deck was a row of 14 x MegaPointes for back lighting and effects.
“Obviously, we needed the intensity and brightness of these FORTEs and BMFLs,” commented Kilian Körber, Media Resources Group’s key account manager on site.
He added that they supply lots of festivals throughout the summer season and there is “never a discussion” about which brand or fixtures to spec for these. “Everyone is very happy to work with Robe,” he confirmed.
The FOH lighting co-ordinator here was Marvin Amstädter.
Perry’s Stage
For the first year ever at Lolla Berlin, Perry’s Stage lighting was also supplied by MRG based in Crailsheim in Baden-Württemberg. Perry’s was located inside the imposing Olympic Stadium building itself, and as usual was a pumping haven for EDM and dance music lovers, headlined by Martin Garrix on the Saturday and The Chainsmokers on Sunday.
Obviously, they needed all those super-quick, effect-heavy fixtures so 34 x MegaPointes and 52 x Pointes were deployed, joined by 41 x Spiiders, 4 x BMFL Blades, 18 x Tetra2s and two standard FORTEs, which together with other luminaires, were positioned with reference to the headliner’s lighting plots.
Lighting on Perry’s stage was looked after by Oliver Reusch, and Kilian commented again that there was no question about having Robe on this fast-paced stage; “Robe on the rig makes it very easy for us in that everyone accepts the brand, there’s never any questions, they are always happy to work with these products”.
He emphasised that when his crew are happy, he always is, which is essential for a festival environment to run smoothly despite the long hours and hard work that everyone willingly puts in.
Media Resource Group has been using Robe fixtures regularly for around 15 years, and Kilian has been there for five and a half years looking after a range of ambitious and interesting projects.
He agrees that RoboSpot has revolutionised the concept of follow spotting, a practical system that saves techs from having to spend hours up towers and mentions that the new LED engines are now well bright enough for all long throw applications.
While there were not any used on Lolla this year, he thinks fixtures like the FOOTSIE are a genius idea for front key lighting being used in conjunction with a RoboSpot system.
Alternative Stage
Sound Projekt from north-east Germany supplied lighting and audio plus stage management services for the Alternative Stage for the fourth year, which hosted a slew of great artists including Sam Tompkins, Glass Beams, Christopher and many more. The stage was project managed for them by Fabian Schwabe and the lighting operator and FOH co-ordinator was Martin Trantow.
This year, there was no video on the stage, so all the visual drama and atmos needed to be created with lighting, for which they needed “properly multifunctional” lights that could cover many different scenarios, explained Fabian.
The production lighting design was a practical and well-tested festival formula, with 20 x MegaPointes for the beams and 24 x Spiiders for the washes, all rigged in the three over-stage trusses and two roll-on-roll-off floor trusses to offer additional floor specials from the deck.
These were augmented with 4 x iPointes and 6 x iSpiiders in the more exposed positions on the front truss.
The floor setup proved very popular this year, with all bands utilising it, and all the Robe fixtures were pulled from their rental inventory.
MegaPointes are “hugely flexible as they can be a beam or a spot,” noted Martin, adding that the output was perfect for this size of stage and the 6 bands playing on it each day. A couple of the artists brought their own operators and Martin lit the rest, which ranged from jangling indie pop and big-beat rock to DJ sets.
The mix of genres, particularly on the Alternative Stage is something Martin really enjoys as well as the challenges of lighting them. “It’s fun and also a great learning curve to produce a good lightshow for all these different styles of performers,” he confirms.
Both comment on the quality of Robe products generally and the “outstanding” support from the Robe Germany operation, which also included a Robe DE Festival Fridge, which was extremely well used for all their events over summer 2024!
Photo: © Louise Stickland, Kilian Körber from Media Resource Group