Bandit Lites Returns to Lollapalooza

	Lollapalooza 2019

Lollapalooza returned to Grant's Park for its annual four-day music festival complete with performances from artists across a wide swath of genres, including rock, pop, alternative, blues, country, hip hop, and EDM. Bandit Lites worked with C3 Presents to provide a lighting package of nearly 400 fixtures for Perry's Stage as well as site lighting across the festival where an estimated 400,000 music fans turned out for the festival's 25th year.

"The Perry's Stage is basically a festival within the festival," explained Brandon Sossamon, C3 productions director. "It has to be unique I leaned heavily on Chris Lisle Lighting Design (CLLD) to come up with a fresh look. My goals were to load in and out safely and economically without compromising the level of production that stage has hosted in the past. The production needed to be versatile and light with a big impact. CLLD delivered on every front using our preferred vendors."

With the design and visuals for the stage a key part of the EDM experience for the audience, Chris Lisle of CLLD first tackled the LED screen design. Once the video concept was locked in, Lisle then looked to choose fixtures that would fill the remaining voids with light.

"One of the primary fixtures that I used for this is the Solo Batten from Chauvet Professional," explained Lisle. "This is such a great, bright light that it helped to bridge between light and video with ease."

With plenty of guest lighting directors stepping up to run the rig, Lisle chose fixtures that would provide the opportunity to clone their existing show files over. "It really impressed me how each LD had their own spin on how they used/programmed the rig," Lisle said. "Some of these EDM LD's are very talented and have some great programming skills."

Bandit Lites provided Elation Professional Paladins as the strobe fixture, its IP rating holding firm in the face of the very real possibility of rain in Chicago. Meanwhile, more than one hundred Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids supplied the all-important beams.

"I am also old school enough that I wanted some tungsten in there as well, so we mixed some WW2 and traditional 4-lite moles in the rig as well," said Lisle.

High End Systems SolaFrame 3000 worked as the stage's front light and stage wash, a fixture that Lisle said really impressed him for its brightness for an LED. With Vari-Lite VL 6000 supplying aerial beams among a host of haze and smoke, it was an overwhelming set up that wowed the crowd.

"The Solo Batten and SolaFrame 3000 were incredible to get to play with on this rig, and I will be spec-ing them some more in the future for sure," said Lisle. "Both are great, bright products with some amazing feature sets."

In addition to the Perry Stage, Bandit Lites also provided the site lighting for nearly a dozen areas of the festival including cocktail bars, guest lounges, the fountain space, VIP areas, Kid Zone and the Merch Palace.

"Site light and directional information has become a very big part of what goes into the subliminal expression at Grant Park for Lollapalooza," explained . "We provide trussing of all sizes and shape to create arches, goal post and twenty-foot towers showing location, directional and general information. No matter where you stand in the park, informational signage ensures you're heading in the right direction. The site lighting aspect is fun for our crews as they set up areas for those looking to get off the beaten path and recharge in areas illuminated with 6,000' of festoon and LED rich fixtures."

Sossamon shared that even with the massive logistics of lighting a festival with 100,000 people attending each day, everything went according to plan.

"Working with Bandit is always a pleasure," he said. "I have worked alongside Terese Fensler for five years and absolutely love her work. I've never been met with a 'no' or 'I can't...' when I approach her with requests. The staff at Bandit always goes above and beyond and treats all of the festival staff with respect. They give it 110% all day and show up the next morning after a long night."

"As always, Bandit took great care of all details on this project, with an immaculate prep to making sure the rig stayed at 100% on site," Lisle added. "They did an amazing job. The on-site crew was fantastic as well, and as a treat for their hard work I treated them to Dim Sum and made them eat chicken feet."

"We are once again honored to been involved working with C3 Presents at Lollapalooza 2019," said Lear. "It was a bonus to work with longtime friends of Bandit Chris Lisle and Erik Parker; their concept for the EDM experience was incredible. With lighting and video spanning 100', this behemoth stage was stunning even from several blocks away. The logistic seemed effortless thanks to the planning and execution of stage manager Jeff Goodin. Our crews were all well information and knew exactly what their roll would be for any given day. I also want to thank Brandon Sossaman and Kira McCabe for their leadership moving through the production details."

"Erik Parker was the on-site lead from our end of things as I had to tend to the T-Mobile stage," finished Lisle. "Justin Casey was the programmer and did an amazing job. Thanks to Brandon Sossamon with C3 for the support and opportunity, and Jeff Goodin (stage manager) for helping pull this off logistically. Also a huge thanks to Reed Rigging, Ecto Productions, and GoVision -- as this design was a very collaborative effort in terms of all departments needing to work together to make sure it went up and down in time."

Perry's Stage team: Jeff Goodin, stage manager; Gene Brian, project manager; Mark Scherer, crew chief; Terese Fensler, FOH/tech; Aaron Swetland, FOH/tech overnights; Chuck Hastings, dimmers/tech.

Site lighting team: Tyler Crain, production manager; PJ Herrington, creative production manager; Shawn Worlow, The Production Collective; Waylon Gautier, logistics; Jimmy Hatten, project manager; Scot Sepe, crew chief; Dave Langford, tech; Jonathan Cousineau, tech; Elliot Martin, tech; Tanner Peterson, tech; Corey Hutchinson, tech.

Chris Lisle and Erik Parker - Chris Lisle Lighting Design; Jeff Goodin - The Production Collective (stage manager); Bobby Clay, talent buyer; DJ Mel, artist integration; Reed Rigging, rigging supplier; ECTO Productions, audio; PGP, staging; ANC, LED; Local 2 IATSE and Local 727 Teamsters.