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Ampco and Flashlight-Metam Power WOMAD’s Las Palmas Winter Warmer
Ampco Pro Rent and sister company Flashlight-Metam supplied a full technical production package to the annual WOMAD Canarias Festival in Las Palmas, Grand Canaria in mid-November.
The three-day free festival of music, arts and dance has long been a favourite among WOMAD fans as well as artists and crew, offering a blend of winter sun and mellifluous music every November.
The event is organised co-operatively between the UK-based WOMAD organisation and Spanish promoter DD Producciones of Madrid, headed by Dania Dévora, and is funded largely by the Canary Islands tourist council with sponsors Tropical and logistical support from the city of Las Palmas. For the tourist council, the festival – the last of a long series of summer events there – is the ideal opportunity to promote the islands as a winter sun destination.
Continuing a 13-year tradition, audio was supplied by Holland’s Ampco Pro Rent (APR), with sister company Flashlight-Metam providing lighting for all three performance areas – the main Santa Catalina and smaller Boulevard stages, and the indoor Cabaret Workshop.
A big talking point beforehand was the headlining appearance – ahead of a major tour of Europe and North America – of The Wailers, including original member Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett.
Other artists included Kanda Bongo Man (Congo), Cristobal Repetto (Argentina), Arístides Moreno and Tońín Corujo (Canary Islands), Chemirani Zarb Trio (Iran), Busi Mhlongo (South Africa), The Bays and Future World Funk (UK), Amadou & Mariam and Salif Keita (Mali), Trilok Gurtu (India), Yasmin Levy (Israel), and Muchachito Bombo Infierno and Carmen París (Spain).
The festival began in 1993 on a beach site in Las Canteras, but found a permanent home in the centre of the island’s capital city four years later. Dania Dévora comments: “We’ve never had single incident in 11 editions of the festival, because we attract an educated, family audience, which also keeps it popular with the locals. People have the second week of November in their diaries as WOMAD without knowing the line-up; they come because they identify with the project and are willing to discover whatever is on offer on the stage.”
The Santa Catalina Stage rig was typical of the event, comprising 75kW of Renkus-Heinz Synco Touring System (RH-STS) with matching subwoofers, driven by Crest Amplifiers and Synco processors, with a 52 channel Midas Heritage 2000 at front of house. In the drive rack were Klark Teknik DN3600 and DN7204s, XTA GQ600 and a BSS Soundweb. Monitors were mixed on a Midas Heritage 3000 using RH-STS sidefills and 12 Synco 152A 2-way active wedges and drum fills. Microphone brands included Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, and Electrovoice, with ASL intercom.
Lighting was controlled by an Avolites Diamond 3, with High End Studio Spots, PAR 64s and various specials.
In overall charge were Dieter van Denzel (production manager) and Erik Welmers (backline), assisted by sound engineers Ronald Koster, Jos van der Hoeven, Marcel Buurman and Paul Porters, stage techs Natasja Geerdink, Lex Vermeend and Peter de Haas and lighting crew Jacques Kranenburg, Daan Worrell, Rob Kranenburg, Martine Jansen, Martin Hoop and Matthijs Adriaans.
Dévora adds: “My first experience of Ampco was as a member of the audience at WOMAD in Cáceres in 1992, and as soon as I heard it I understood completely that this is the way festivals should sound and what they should offer. I didn’t know about Ampco then or what they were doing, but I knew it set a standard and it’s still a very integral part of what we offer, even though other companies want to offer their services here. It’s easy for me to defend using Ampco because whenever the PA is turned on it sounds like heaven!
“We’ve been involved in the record industry in Spain for many years and, without wishing to sound pretentious, I wanted to put decency into the way cultural events work in the Canary Islands. In other words, not just thinking about what is the most popular thing to do, but thinking about standards and what will make this place, this culture, a bit richer So I think we’ve created a special little spot within the world of show business production in the Canaries.”
Her talents also include record production, and in 2003 she won a Latin Grammy Award with Jose Luis Ruperez in the Best Classical Album category for Historia Del Soldado, Igor Stravinsky’s musical tale for children as interpreted by Cuban reed player Paquito D’Rivera.
WOMAD co-founder and artist director Thomas Brooman says: “WOMAD Canarias is organised to an established pattern – around four groups are drawn from the Canary Islands themselves, two or three from mainland Spain, plus international artists: as wide a programme as we can afford, given the budget and timeline. Some music is very particular to the islands where a lot of music is made in the tradition of festivals, carnivals and other annual celebrations – festivals are part of the culture here.”
In picture: DD Producciones’ Dania Dévora with Fred Heuves of Ampco Pro Rent.
28th November 2005
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