KAABOO Festival 2016

For years festivals have been trying to “get it right.” The exact formula for an enjoyable experience for attendees, staff, technicians, and stakeholders has seemed like an impossible venture. Until KAABOO.

From the moment you step onsite at the Del Mar racetrack in Southern California, you get a sense of relaxation, comfort, and enjoyment from being in the environment, much less being so close to the Pacific Ocean or enjoying your favorite musical acts or being blown away by a piece of art or sampling some of the best food of the area prepared by unbelievable chefs that share the same KAABOO Experience vision – comfort, quality, community. As the lighting designers of the KAABOO Experience, working with the creative team, CLLD LLC’s job (Nashville, TN) was simply to enhance this feeling among the guests and take their already great experience to the next level.

Chris Lisle and Erik Parker of CLLD were invited to join the team during the inaugural KAABOO Experience in 2015 as the lighting designers for the festival in its entirety. With 4 musical stages, a comedy stage, cooking demo stage and the amazing canvas of the site itself to bring to life, there was a large task at hand, but with a smile and bottle of fireball they went to work!

“We worked closely with the design team and Jim Dorroh (production manager) to make sure we were all heading in the right direction with both design and logistics,” said Lisle as there were many unique scenic elements involved in this design. Elements lit in 2016 included two entrances with large structures and scrim, several way-finding scenic pieces, a few shaded structures, several ‘hangout’ areas for general admission and VIP guests alike, building facades, huge murals with incredible artwork, stages of all different sizes, and specifically-themed buildings from a comedy tent to a poker room.

“There were two main challenges,” said Parker of CLLD. “The first was to enhance KAABOO’s vision with our form of artwork on such a large scale and the second was to do it in a way that wasn’t distracting or dangerous for the guests.” With over 4,100 feet of truss and well over 2,000 lighting fixtures site-wide, it could be very easy to ‘over-do’ it when placing lighting fixtures or having to run cables across walking paths or driveways to get power and control to each of the lights. Lisle and Parker meticulously went through the site to place each lighting element in a way that would create the most impact with the least impedance on traffic-flow and visual eye-sores.

“This experience has been one of the favorites throughout my 20+ year career,” says Lisle. “We have a blast in the beautiful Del Mar and get to see so many people having the time of their lives over the course of the weekend. That’s what it’s all about! It’s an honor to be nominated for this great award but what truly is important is the experiences the fans get to enjoy!”
 
KEY PLAYERS
Joe Styles, Marian Marioka, Amanda Lynn – Festival Creative Directors
Chris Lisle, Erik Parker – Festival Lighting Design
LeoEvents: Kent Underwood, Jim Dorroh – Festival Producers
 
GEAR
24 GrandMA 2 Control Surfaces
36 Elation Platinum Beam 5r
56 Elation Platinum FLX
74 Elation Platinum Wash ZFX Pro
12 Elation Sniper 2R
80 Elation ACL 360 Bar
43 Elation ZCL 360i
32 Elation Protron LED Strobe
32 Martin Mac Viper
20 Martin Mac Aura
36 Robe Strobe
30 Robe BMFL Spot
72 Clay Paky Sharpy
109 Vari-Lite 3500 Wash
44 Vari-Lite 4000 Spot
80 LED Batten
1242 LED Par
32 Airstar Fixtures
34 Lighting Staff/Technicians

Vote here!