Avolites Diamond 4 consoles were in action at the recent massive Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon– the first time the world famous music extravaganza has been staged outside South America.

Two Diamond 4 consoles were made available by Avolites’ Portuguese distributor BackLight for the occasion. One was used by LDs choosing the Avo option on the main stage, and the other was installed in the on-site WYSIWYG suite, set up to allow incoming bands LD’s and programmers the time and a calm environment in which to pre-programme their shows.

This showed once again that Avolites new generation of power consoles – the D4 range - is the best hands-on option for festivals and large multi-user events.

The ‘Rock City’ site for the event, was built in the 220,000 square metre Bela Vista Park area of central Lisbon. This previously derelict wasteland has now been turned into a beautiful permanent park that offers a 100,000 capacity, four arenas and all possible modern festival amenities and infrastructure.

An eclectic international array of artists headlined the main Palco Mundo stage, including Metallica, Britney Spears, Peter Gabriel, Black Eyed Peas, Slip Knot, Sting, the Sugababes, Sepultura and many others, encompassing a broad range of music genres from sugar pop to speed metal.

Main stage lighting was co-ordinated by Danny Nolan, who’s worked on previous Rock In Rio shows in Brazil. His challenging task was to ensure that all the main band’s lighting needs were as catered for; that LDs and programmers had their console of their choice and sufficient programming time to create their show. If they were adding their own specials, he also made sure enough time was available to set this up and integrate it into their shows.

Avolites has a very strong presence in Portugal, and Rock In Rio Lisboa LD’s choosing Avolites included Ali Bale (Sugababes), Caio Bertti (Sepultura), 
Joe Paradise (Incubus), Manual Ancumes (Moonspell) and Nick Kyriacou (Black Eyed Peas), Alvaro de Oliveira (Charlie Brown Junior) Evan Marks (Gilberto Gil), Chris Steel of Avolites UK (Seether) and Alfredo Cappochi (Daniela Mercury).

Caio Bertti from Brazil, who has grown up using Avo consoles since the start of his lighting career aged 13, and has been LD’ing Sepultura since 2000. He says, “The D4 is an incredible step forward for Avo …. It’s very fast and easy 
to operate. My style of operation is hands on – I ‘play’ the desk as the band are performing – it’s my equivalent of a musical instrument”.

Lighting instruments available on the main stage included 48 MAC 2K profiles and 42 High Ends Studio Beam PCs and nearly 300 PARS.

In addition to supplying the Diamond 4s for the Festival, Luis Pedro Oliveira at Lisbon-based BackLight also designed and supplied all effects lighting for the Vodafone hospitality areas, including their “Best Seat enclosure”, up on one of the hills. This included James Thomas Pixelline 1044 fixtures and Studio Due City Colors all controlled from an Avolites Azure.

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Moonspell in action

All photos are © Louise Stickland