One of the world’s most remote music events, the annual Qooqqut festival brings takes place on an isolated shore in the Nuuk fjord complex, surrounded by the dramatic mountains of western Greenland. Organised by Greenland’s cultural centre, Katuaq, this year’s festival took place during August, with an Allen & Heath SQ-6 console for mixing.
With no roads, no phone signal and no Internet onsite, Qooqqut 2020 offered a rare opportunity to step outside the everyday world and experience a diverse programme of music, workshops and traditional sports. Tickets were capped at an intimate 250 for each day and the event was planned in close cooperation with the authorities to ensure compliance with Covid-19 guidelines.
Katuaq sound technician Angunnguaq Larsen mixed FOH for the event using a 48-channel A&H SQ-6 console, with an iPad running the SQ MixPad app providing him with a portable solution for controlling all the artists’ monitors. An SQ Dante card in the console enabled the FOH/monitor split as well as providing multitrack recording capability. A pair of portable DX168 I/O expanders were placed onstage, connecting to the SQ-6 over the plug-and-play SLink protocol.
The SQ-6 provided an ideal heart for the system, as Angunnguaq explains: ‘The main reasons we chose to bring our SQ were the audio quality and the size. For this festival you can’t just put the equipment in a truck and drive to the site – everything has to be carried in by hand. I really like the sound quality and the headroom you get from SQ. I also appreciate the Deep processing models in the compressor pack, and the onboard FX provide depth when you need it. With a busy programme and short setup times, the mixer’s ease of use and fast workflows are also really important. You can do pretty much anything with SQ.’
When it is not running FOH by the fjord, the SQ-6 is part of the A/V system at Katuaq in Nuuk, mixing performances and conferences in the centre’s 508-capacity main hall and two smaller event spaces.
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