dbn Gets Lost in the Village Vibes

	Lost Village Festival 2016 with Fat Boy Slim. Photo: Louise Stickkland

dbn lighting from Manchester, UK, supplied lighting, LED screen, and crew to the main stage and four other performances spaces at the 2016 Lost Village Festival, plus site-wide scenic and environmental illumination highlighting hundreds of organic artworks made with natural materials found on the site.

It was the second year of this unique and genuinely boutique festival staged by Lost Ventures with site and production management coordinated by Andy George, Jay Jameson, and Ben Atkins with whom dbn enjoys a great creative synergy. dbn's Nick Buckley project managed for them, commenting, "A huge increase in production values this year underlined Andy, Jay, and Ben's commitment to the event, and making it among the best alternative festivals of the UK season."

Staged in the beautiful Lincolnshire countryside in a low-key location, replete with pastures, woodland, a small lake, and a properly magical feel, the event presented some great dance music, activities, and positive vibes in a vibrant and fun environment.

This year's Lost Village also upped its game with Fatboy Slim playing Friday night on the main stage, a host of other great live acts and DJ's appearing across the three days, the massive investment in production mentioned above by Buckley ... and an increased audience capacity.

For the main stage, G2 built one of their striking structures in a small meadow, which featured a lighting and video production design by Buckley to maximize the elegant architecture of the roof system.

The installed trussing included two V-shapes either side (stage left and right) with the middle and lower elements attached to ground support towers, and a three-quarter circle truss curving around the full over-stage area and going out above the audience. Another two dbn trusses were used to fly Audile's PA arrays.

The LED elements of the set were designed to extend the stage sideways with three horizontal strips of dbn's proprietary 12.5mm Eastar LED. Careful positioning -- and clamping to the trusses -- of the panels allowed the gentle curve of the metalwork to be replicated with no gaps in the pixels.

In the center, the Lost Village logo was reproduced using 18mm LED panels.

dbn's design also took into account some specific requests from Fatboy Slim's production and lighting designer Abbiss -- who was "extremely accommodating" explained Buckley.

The whole lighting and visuals rig stayed in for the rest of the weekend so all performers had the benefit.

The moving lights were chosen for their flexibility as workhorses and comprised 20 Clay Paky Sharpys -- 16 in the air and four on the floor; 20 Clay Paky A.LEDA K10s fitted with B-Eye lenses, 10 on the back wall, four on the floor, and the other six over the dancefloor; six Clay Paky Alpha Spot 575s on the back wall and another six on the dancefloor truss.

Sixteen (of 18) Martin by Harman Atomic strobes were rigged on the back wall, with the other two on the floor, and 20 Moles were also on the back wall -- a mix of four and two-lite DWEs.

Four ETC Source Four profiles provided DJ booth / band key-light with two PAR 64s on the V trusses for additional keys on Fatboy Slim, while four ADB 1.2K fresnels created a solid basic stage wash.

All the video content and control was supplied by video artists and VJ Tom Bartley, and the lighting was operated and run for the weekend by dbn's Edwin Croft.

Stage 2 : The Cabin At Stage 2: The Cabin, an elaborate scenic design was created -- and all the other stages -- by décor specialists Evolution Exhibitions -- resembling a cabin tucked away in the woods which unveiled many surprises nestled in a little glade, pumping out great trance beats.

The lighting design took advantage of the Cabin's structural ladder beams which were utilized as hanging points.

The fixtures were 12 Clay Paky Mythos and six Showtec Sunstrips, positioned around the DJ booth with six strobes filling up the open stage immediately to the left and right.

With the Mythos being a properly multi-functional fixture, 12 were more than enough to give a huge variety of looks.

For control, programmer / operator Steve Barnett used an Avolites Tiger Touch II adding his own little touch of control magic, utilizing a BPM app to synch chases being run through the desk to the BPM of the DJ.

The low hanging trees formed a natural roof canopy over the audience area, and slung around this were several strings of LED lanterns, made up using intelligent IMS festoon with each bulb dressed by a round white lamp shade. The DMX color-changing bulbs were individually mapped through the lighting desk which looked highly effective.

Stage Three, the Chapel was another detailed scenic masterpiece ensconced in a clearing along one of the winding woodland pathways followed by guests on their enchanted journey to discovery the "lost village."

This stage featured an all DJ line up and ran for Saturday and Sunday of the event, looked after for dbn by Chris Phillips (Pip).

As with the Cabin, there were limited rigging positions available, so the dbn team used a bit of invention. Two Clay Paky Mythos moving lights were hung above the DJ booth with another two just inside the door -- effectively surrounding the DJ, with four more Mythos on the two stage wings in weather domes, shooting down the audience area.

Four Sharpy Washes -- their compact size ideal for the space -- were squeezed in above the DJ, with another two behind the Chapel's two windows, also blasting out into the audience.

Four Atomic strobes were in these same positions, with two LED PARs as key light for the DJ, and another three Spectral LED PARs a side ratchet strapped into the trees to light the front of stage.

Illuminated balloons around the stage were supplied by Made Up.

Phillips used a Pearl Expert to control the lights and enjoyed the opportunity to adopt a creative "busking" style.

Buckley himself ran lighting at the fourth operated stage, Lookout, which was heavily disguised as a forest hideaway and located in base camp -- together with a collection of funky food vendors, chill out areas, phone charging stations, etc.

This stage was considerably larger than last year and based around a full structure, supplied, together with all the other stages by G2, with Evolution doing the site-wide stage scenic dressing, which paid huge attention to the detail making each stage stand out.

A full program of live and DJ acts ran throughout the weekend at Lookout adding to the overall loungey, relaxed vibe of this zone.

The stage structure was again utilized for lighting hanging points the four Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s, eight A.LEDA K10s with B-Eye lenses, four Atomic strobes, and half a dozen Moles for audience blinding. Twenty-four strings of fairy lights on poles formed a canopy over the audience immediately in front of stage.

Buckley ran the lighting from a Pearl Expert console.

Ruthie Ford from Cloud Nine Décor commissioned and oversaw the making and installation of literally hundreds of pieces of natural and organic art dotted around the site -- hanging in the trees, attached to the bushes, and hiding in the undergrowth -- including mirror people and tree wrapping, all of which were lit, sometimes incidentally, by the environmental lighting for which dbn supplied around 32 SGM P5 LED floods and 60 Spectral LED PARs.

dbn also supplied a self-running lighting system for Lost Bureaux, a small charismatic DJ intervention underneath a huge tree en route to the lake.

Four High End Systems classic Trackspots were dusted off -- well preserved, these quality lighting antiques are frequently in action for this type of work throughout the summer -- and added to Studio Due ArchiLEDs skimming up the décor and fascias, with a collection of Squirrel Cage light-bulbs dotted around running twinkling chases around the front of a building.

Site wide power was provided by SWG and sound for all areas by Audile.

The event on the first "official" UK festival weekend of the year, enjoyed amazing weather and a great buzz.

Buckley concludes, "It was fantastic to be back at the Lost Village again this year and to see it develop without losing any of the unique and friendly vibes making it so different and special! It's always great working with Andy, Jay, and Ben -- their approach to creating great entertainment environments is truly innovative."