Music

The Biggest Music Festivals of 2018

Posted on by Jonathan Kennedy

When you’re planning your next music events, it pays to be ahead of the curve. We’ve highlighted some of the best music festivals that 2018 has to offer.

Boomtown Fair

The Boomtown Fair runs from Thursday the 9th to Sunday the 12th of August, at the Matterley Estate in Hampshire. Running since 2009, each year introduces a new chapter in the town’s ‘history’. Boomtown has seen rapid expansion, alien invasion, civil unrest and toppled regimes. 2018’s show promises to be just as exciting!

In more practical terms Boomtown offers 25 stages and many smaller venues, spread across 12 distinct ‘districts’. Each district focuses on a small selection of genres, ensuring there’s something for everyone to experience. While 2018’s lineup is yet to be confirmed, last year’s included the likes of Loyle Carner, the Utah Saints and Alabama 3. Whatever your tastes, there will be dozens of different acts to choose from!

On-site accommodation is available. Visit the official website for full details.

Download Festival

If you’re after the last word (and first choice) in rock music, the Download Festival is one of the best music events. It runs from Friday the 8th to Sunday the 10th of June in Donington Park.

The festival launched back in 2003 with contemporary hits such as Evanescence, Iron Maiden and Marilyn Manson. The festival has only gone from strength to strength since then; this year, attendees can look forward to Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne and none other than Guns N’ Roses!

With a range of camping options also available, the Download Festival is an excellent option for rock fans. Visit their website for more information.

Bestival

Describing itself as ‘the most colourful show on Earth’, Bestival is a boutique music festival on the Jurassic Coast. It takes place between Thursday the 2nd and Sunday the 5th of August at the Lulworth Estate. 2018’s show boasts legendary acts like London Grammar and Chaka Khan, as well as new blood from acts like Mura Masa and Mabel and Idles.

Like the Boomtown Fair, Bestival has several distinct areas for attendants to explore. From mysterious forests to vintage caravans to the world’s biggest bouncy castle, there’s no end of distractions for you to explore! Music fans will want to check out the Castle Stage, which hosts the festival’s headliners and heavy hitters.

A variety of camping options are available, with camping included in the ticket price. Festivalgoers can bring their own tents, caravans or motorhomes, or stay in one of the festival’s luxury tents already set up onsite. For full details, visit the Bestival website.

Latitude Festival

Winner of Best Major Festival at the UK Festival Awards, the Latitude Festival is a great choice for diverse, family-friendly music events. It runs from Thursday the 12th of July to Sunday the 15th of July, at Henham Park in Suffolk.

Offering more than 20 distinct areas, there’s something for fans of every kind of music. The Obelisk Arena hosts the festival’s headliners, which has seen the likes of Arcade Fire, Bon Ever and Mumford and Sons. If you’re looking for something a little different, the BBC Music Stage showcases alternative music from many different genres.

Visitors to the Latitude Festival can also enjoy film screenings, theatre productions, stand-up comedy and many different arts and crafts activities for children. Enjoy all this while surrounded by vibrant woodland and the best festival atmosphere Suffolk has to offer!

For full details visit the Latitude Festival website.

Tramlines Festival

This festival celebrates the city of Sheffield in all its glory. Boasting four stages of world classic music, the festival also showcases art, comedy, and regional food. It all takes place at Hillsborough Park, from Friday the 20th to Sunday the 22nd of July.

Each of the stages has a different focus, including indie acts, local talent and emerging artists. This year also sees the return of Into the Trees, a mix of family-friendly area in a wooded glade! When you want a bite to eat, tuck in to some quality street food from both local and national traders. Vegan and gluten-free options are available, as well as a range of locally-brewed alcoholic drinks.

For full details, visit the Tramlines Festival website.

This is just a small sample of the fantastic festivals the UK has to offer. And these are exactly the kinds of music events Stagefreight can help you to put on.

As a stage transport company, we know how crucial timing is for any show. That’s why our experienced lead driver takes control of planning the trailer arrival, to ensure everything arrives at the right time. They will plan the most cost-effective, fuel-efficient route to the event, too, saving you money and ensuring everything arrives on time. Once your goods arrive, our drivers can also help you with lighting choices, and build the stage with your team. Working with Stagefreight guarantees your show, large or small, will go off without a hitch!

For more information on how we can help, get in touch with us now via our Contact page.

Weird and Wonderful Stage Designs

Posted on by Jonathan Kennedy

Some time ago we talked about the best local pantomimes in the UK for 2017. One of the highlights was the Birmingham performance of Peter Pan, starring Coronation Street actor and game show host Bradley Walsh. This show had everything; three stages, a 60 foot wide screen, a 10,000 gallon water wall and a giant animatronic crocodile.

That led us to wonder what other stage designs raised the bar in terms of scale and imagination. That’s why we’ve gathered together some of the most daring stage designs theatre and music has to offer.

An Inspector Calls

transport for events dolls house
Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Written by Bradford playwright J.B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945. The story of a police inspector investigating the death of a young woman has seen several performances since then, as well as some truly inventive set design.

Many contemporary performances of the play use a distinctive ‘doll’s house’ set. The first version of this appeared in 1992; it appears as a small house with skewed inner proportions and walls that swing outwards. At the end of the play the whole house actually collapses, symbolising the utter ruin of the family’s cosy, untroubled way of life.

The U2 Zoo TV Tour

In 2017, Irish rock band U2 faded into the pop culture background a little. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to put on a show!

One of their most influential ones was the Zoo TV Tour, which ran over 1992 and 1993. It toured in America, Europe and Australia, and laid the ground- if Rolling Stone is to be believed- for the likes of Kanye West and Lady Gaga after them.

The stage design for the Zoo TV Tour presented some interesting challenges when it came to the transport for the events. It featured a series of giant video screens; these were designed to reflect a 90s media landscape of numbing, incessant visual exposure, mixing war footage with old sitcoms and even cooking shows. Parts of the stage were so tall they required their own warning lights, and the American leg of the tour required 52 trucks just to transport the equipment.

The Wall Live 2010

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters struck out on his own during this four-year music tour. Featuring a strong anti-war message, the tour travelled through Canada, North America, Europe and Australia before finishing in São Paolo.

Like U2, Waters’ show features a giant video screen; his screen, however, is over 500 feet long and over 80 feet high. The stage also features giant puppets, an inflatable pig (sacrificed at each show) and a colossal wall, built from 1000 cardboard bricks before the start of each performance. Separating the artists from the audience, the eponymous wall is meant to make a powerful statement about the divisions in modern society.

Sucker Punch

Written by Roy Williams and first performed in 2010, Sucker Punch is a play about racism and tough choices in the 1980s. The play went on to win both the Olivier Award and the Alfred Fagon award. However, its greatest achievement might be its set, which puts a boxing ring onto a theatre stage.

That alone would certainly elevate the play in terms of stage design, but the performance went a step further by surrounding it with other details. With punch bags, sponsors’ ads and even old fight posters festooning the walls, this was a performance that did everything it could to immerse its audience in its era.

Lady Gaga’s Joanne World Tour

If anyone is capable of putting on a show, Lady Gaga certainly is. The stage for her Joanne World Tour (launched and named after her fifth studio album) certainly lives up to that reputation for elaborate, exciting sets.

The stage for the tour actually consists of four separate stages, connected by three ‘flying bridge platforms’, which can also act as projection displays. The main stage uses a series of lifts that allow it to transform into several different configurations. According to Tait, who manufactured the stage, it is the most complex set that Lady Gaga has ever used.

As you can see, live performances offer fertile ground for eccentric, creative performances. But there’s a serious logistical element to these shows as well and that’s where we come in.

We at Stagefreight have plenty of experience in stage transportation. Whether it’s for theatre or music events, we have the experience and know-how to work out the most practical transport solution for your stage design.

Our drivers are responsible for getting your trailers to the right place at the right time, and will make sure you show goes off without a hitch. We can even offer onsite support with lighting choices, and help you put the stage together once all the components have arrived.

For more details, give us a call now on 0113 797 898.

Weird and Wonderful Musical Instruments

Posted on by Jonathan Kennedy

At Stagefreight, music transport forms the backbone of our business. From getting instruments and stage props to grand operas or to intimate one-off shows, our clients have strummed, warbled and plinked through some wonderful shows.

But music transport is more than rock bands and grand orchestras. Join us on this magical mystery tour through the strangest corners of the musical world.

The Subcontrabass Flute

The flute is an instrument famous for its high pitch- in fact, it’s the highest pitched instrument in an orchestra’s woodwind section. This flute takes a rather different approach.

A subcontrabass flute produces a very low sound, three octaves below a concert flute. The instrument is over 4 metres long, and can be constructed from metal or PVC.

It’s possible to create a flute with an even lower sound called a hyperbass. At its lowest level, a hyperbass can produce infrasonic sound, which is beyond the range of human hearing.

The Instruments Carved from Ice

Most musicians use instruments built to last. This Norwegian musician takes a rather different approach.

Terje Isungset is a percussionist with 20 years of experience in jazz and Scandinavian music. He creates instruments from many unconventional materials like sheep bells, slate, arctic birch and- of course- ice.

By carving solid blocks, Terje can turn simple ice into trumpets and glockenspiels. The sound is both familiar and ethereal, and driven by the belief we are visitors to the earth, rather than owners of it.

Terje also curates the Ice Music Festival, which takes place each year in Geilo, Norway.

The Solar Powered Music Box

Music boxes are about 200 years old, use clockwork innards, and feature a design small enough to fit in one hand. Henry Dagg ignored almost all of these conventions when he constructed this bizarre instrument, commissioned by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

The ‘sharpsichord’, or pin-barrel harp, takes the principles of a music box and scales them up a bit. Constructed from stainless steel, the instrument plays music by rotating a drum with pins attached to it. These pins ‘pluck’ each string of the instrument, producing music.

In the initial plans, the instrument would sit outside and use a solar-powered motor to drive the machinery. However the owners moved it from its original, open-air location for fear of theft. What’s more, the instrument can only play 90 seconds of audio before it begins to repeat itself.

Still, it’s a striking- if unwieldly- take on a classic of musical instruments.

The Musical Marble Machine

Some people, when given a marble run, are happy to pass marbles through the tubes and channels for a couple of hours. Other people, it seems, are a little more adventurous.

Created by one Martin Molin and played by Wintergatan, a Swedish ‘folktronica’ band, the Marble Machine is a Frankenstein’s monster of an instrument. It incorporates several different instruments (or parts of instruments) into its frame, which are then triggered by hundreds of falling metal balls. Musicians ‘program’ the song into the machine using rows and rows of Lego bricks. These work like the innards of a music box; changing the arrangement of bricks changes the song as well.

A new and improved version of the machine has been created for touring purposes, but you can visit the official Wintergatan website to see the original being assembled. It now lives at Museum Speelklok, a Dutch establishment dedicated to self-playing musical instruments.

The Stalacpipe Organ

Our last instrument is certainly the biggest….and the most unwieldy. The Stalacpipe Organ uses an entire cavern to produce music!

Built in 1954 by Leland Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronic scientist, the organ lives in the Luray Caverns of Virginia. When a musician presses a key on the organ, they send a signal to an electromagnet, which taps a rubber mallet against one of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

These stalactites cover a distance of 3.5 acres. That’s 14,164 square metres…or just over 2 and a half football fields!

However, to keep the organ in working order the operators must constantly battle damp and low temperatures. Parts of the organ are even coated in beeswax to prevent corrosion. The organ will also need retuning in a few hundred years, but thanks to its official government designation as a US Natural landmark, the organ will hopefully be around for a long time yet.

As you can see, there are some truly bizarre instruments in the world of music. But we at Stagefreight don’t see them as obstacles. We see them as exciting music transport challenges (well, perhaps not the Stalacpipe).

Whatever you’re looking to transport, Stagefreight is here to help. We’ve got plenty of experience transporting weird and wonderful items (over 25 years to be precise). And ensuring they arrive at their venue in perfect condition on time – every time – is what we do.

Once our drivers arrive, they’ll help to build stages and advise you on lighting choices. They become a part of your event team. And if you need to make a last-minute event change- or addition to an existing lineup- our music transport experts can step in and ensure the show goes on.

Call us now on 0113 797 898 to learn more about what we can do for your next show.