Slovenia welcomed the 2012 Festive season in huge style at the Red XMas Party, the country’s largest and hottest dance event, headlined by Armin Van Buuren, staged at the Arena Stožice, Ljubljana by Black Pony Entertainment and enjoyed by 12,000 wildly enthusiastic fans!
At the core of the lighting rig – a design based on a plot by Van Buuren’s LD André Beekmans, and operated by Michael Seeverens both from Dutch based company The Art Of Light – were 70 Robe moving lights supplied by Slovenia’s largest lighting rental company, Event Lighting.
The Robes were positioned all over a series of 12 trusses hung above the stage and comprised Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes, ROBIN 600 Spots and ColorSpot 1200E ATs.
As well as forming a very dynamic nucleus for Van Buuren’s high energy set, they were the workhorse lights for the other DJs in the 8 hours of non-stop performance which included Jaz von D, who warmed the crowd brilliantly ahead of Van Buuren’s 1 a.m. slot, and Ferry Corsten who took the reins and wrapped the party up from 3 – 5 a.m.
Lighting for all artists apart from Van Buuren and Corsten was operated by freelance LD / operator Uroš Vovk. His main task was to make the show look interesting and different for the long stint, which he achieved with great panache using the Robes and the rest of the lighting rig.
He comments that having a good number of Robes on the rig helped him enormously in lighting the event, and ensured that he would never be short of creative options!
The show visuals were also enhanced by an impressive video design by the event’s Technical Director, Jaka Meden.
Vovk uses Robe fixtures on most of his shows now and really likes the brand, “They are excellent all-round lights,” he comments. “Very bright and versatile, fast, easy-to-programme and the colours are good and consistent”.
For a show like this, he set up a number of basic presets on his Chamsys MQ100 Pro console and Playback Wing and then mixed live ‘improv’ style over the top, which kept everything vibrant and changing with the peaks and shifts in the music and the mood and vibe of the audience.
Michael Seeverens says that he “Really likes” Robe’s ROBIN series fixtures, and specially the LEDWash 600s, so he was pleased to have 25 of these on the rig at the Arena Stožice.
They were joined by 20 Robe ROBIN 600E Spots and 24 ColorSpot 1200E Ats.
From a rental company perspective, Event Lighting, MD and Owner Jernej Guštin is very firmly committed to Robe.
He bought his first Robes around 2002 and has been a keen user ever since. The company now has over 100 in stock … and are about to take delivery of the first ROBIN MMX WashBeams in Slovenia, which will be delivered by Robe’s very proactive and well respected distributor, MK Light Sound d.o.o.