Having begun working with Fly Events on the inaugural Fly Open Air EDM event in Princes Street Gardens – the 6500-acre grounds of a historic building overlooking the River Forth, which separates Edinburgh from Fife – in September 2016, Creation Live followed the event to the 17th century Hopetoun House, the following May.
With the event more than doubling the first Hopetoun House attendance to 8,500 per day this year, Creation adopted sister company VME’s Martin Audio MLA to handle both sound delivery and sound control..
Creation Live’s Tom Whittle heads the event and production company, which this year will take on 300-plus events of varying sizes, and describes the event as ‘absolutely amazing’ – largely because of a bill that included Solumun’s first appearance in Scotland in a decade, alongside Nina Kraviz, Sven Väth, Peggy Gou and Seth Troxler. The other reason it excelled was because they invested in a set of 12m-high PA towers to get sufficient array height on a main stage that was designed by Creation Live’s Tom Elkington. This gave them additional control.
The rig comprised nine MLA elements, with three MLD Downfill at the base on each side. A further ten of the smaller Martin Audio MLA Compact enclosures were used for infills and for LF extension a row of 20 Martin Audio MLX was floor-mounted across the front of the stage.
The main FOH mix was in the capable hands of Jim Loseby who, according to Whittle, ‘did a great job’ largely because the amount of prep work that went in. ‘We tried to create an immersive environment, particularly for those at the front, and although we were permitted to run up to 107dB(A) in the audience area, we sensibly restricted it to 104dB(A) which was still loud.’
At the same time they still met the offsite level restrictions over the different time thresholds, which was never greater than 70dB(A). In addition to main stage, Creation Live also fielded a further four Martin Audio W8C tops and three WS218S subs on the main stage.
Whittle reports that MLA proved not only popular with many of the acts but also Fly Events’ director, Tom Ketley. ‘The sound at all of our events is always a very important element of the show, not just for us but also the audience, we always have great feedback about the Martin Audio MLA used on both of our festival events from the audience and the local authority,’ he says
Turning to the production and events team Ketley adds: ‘At Fly Events we always enjoy working with Creation Live and VME for our festival shows; their flair for interesting and unique stage design, technical ability and attention to detail to get all elements of the event perfect continues to impress us. Tom and his team worked tirelessly in advance of the event and over the weekend to ensure everyone attending the festival had a weekend to remember.’
The success of the event coincided with news that Fly Open Air’s sister festival in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens will go ahead in September, following a successful petition – Edinburgh City Councillors chose to give their backing to the event amid new rules over how open spaces are used. This will also see MLA deployed by Creation Live, this time in groundstacked configuration.
More: https://martin-audio.com
