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Meyer Sound Gears Up for European Festivals
Europe’s music festival season is in full swing, with the continent’s leading sound hire companies working overtime to keep up with an increasing demand for Meyer Sound systems at festival sites from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
In Scandinavia, Sweden’s annual Hultsfred Festival has attracted increasing hordes of hard-rock fans with each successive event. In recent years, audio provider Starlight AB has responded with larger complements of Meyer Sound loudspeakers to provide both crowd-pleasing power and the precise directional control needed to comply with Sweden’s tough noise ordinances. This year Meyer Sound is powering four main stages: M3D line arrays anchor the systems for the Hawaii and Pampas stages (25,000 and 12,000 capacity respectively), while MILO high-power curvilinear arrays cover 5,000 at the Atlantis stage and M2D compact curvilinear arrays pump up a crowd of 2,000 in the indoor theatre.
“We have been very happy with the results,” says Anders Hagström of Dynamic Duo, the production management company for the festival. “The planning and configuration was done with (Meyer Sound) MAPP Online and followed up with (measurements performed using) SIM, which helps us achieve much better directional control. We have had no complaints about the sound quality, or being too loud outside the festival grounds.”
Spain has always loved a good party, and the Iberian tradition of summer revelry continues with at least four major festivals employing Meyer Sound systems. At Viña Rock near Villarrobledo, festival-goers feel the music at the Matarile y Republica stage through a hair-parting 42 M3Ds and 36 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers. Over at the New Rock stage, 26 MILOs and two MILO 120 high-power expanded coverage curvilinear array loudspeakers team up with 28 650-P high power subwoofers to deliver the good times.
At least three other festivals are on tap for Spain’s thriving Meyer Sound rental companies: Metro Rock in Madrid, Festimad Sur between Madrid and Toledo, and the Festival International Benicassim (FIB) on the Mediterranean Coast near Valencia.
Moving to the heart of Europe, the tradition continues along the shore of Lake Geneva as Meyer Sound notches its 19th consecutive year as a sponsor of and official sound supplier to the Montreux Jazz Festival – now celebrating its 39th season. Once again, more than a dozen systems of all sizes and configurations will be deployed indoors and out, with Switzerland’s own Hyperson working in tandem with Dispatch of Paris as primary sound providers. The same two companies also are contracted to supply Meyer Sound systems for the Paleo Festival at Nyon, Switzerland.
Metalheads throughout Europe will descend on the fields of northern Germany for Wacken Open Air (W.O.A), where Meyer Sound systems from Procon AG of Hamburg will pump up the volume to serious head-banging levels. Moving East to Budapest, Hungary, a spicy goulash of rock sounds will be heated up by Meyer Sound systems as the Sziget Festival spreads over a sizeable island in the middle of the blue Danube.
Finally, European thrill-seekers looking for something a bit different can drop in on the Red Bull Air Races at Holland’s Rotterdam Harbor. As the death-defying aerial acrobatics snarl overhead, crisp public address announcements – punctuated by high-impact incidental music – cover a huge swath of sprawling harbor-side, thanks to strategic deployment of 56 Meyer Sound MILO loudspeakers, 80 subwoofers (700-HP and 650-P) and many smaller cabinets for frontfill and VIP area coverage.
The festival season is a hectic time for Meyer Sound’s loyal European sound hire companies, with the long summer days usually ending up short on sleep – but pleasant for the bottom line. “The Meyer Sound systems move around Europe very quickly during the season,” notes Scott Gledhill, Meyer Sound’s director of international sales. “It’s often only after the season ends that people catch their breath enough to remember to tell us about half of the shows they used their systems on.”
7th June 2005
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