World Stage: Werchter Festival
Three summer days in Belgium

When entertaining guests from the Americas, Europeans, love to point out old buildings, gently reminding us that many of their newer edifices are older than the U.S., never mind the thousand year old ones.

They can also do this with large scale rock/dance festivals, as the Werchter Festival (June 29 - July 1 2001) started in Werchter, Belgium in 1974, and is still going strong.

Photo #1: Adamson Vertical Arrays on the Main Stage

NITE (GEAR) MOVES Beginning in 1978, the event was split between Torhut, on Saturday, and moved to Werchter over Saturday night for a second complete presentation on the Sunday. This arrangement lasted through 1998, after which the festival assumed its present form as a three day event presented in Werchter only. The logistics of the all-night Saturday shift from Torhut to Werchter, combined with the crowd size, quality of performer and tech requirements, presented a significant challenge to promoter Herman Schueremans and production manager Walter D’Haese. From a production standpoint, avoiding the equivalent of organizing the Normandy invasion on a yearly basis has simplified and improved the experience for the staff and the punters. Werchter Festival is a now a two stage show, presenting a variety of rock and dance acts in a festival environment. The town, Werchter, is a small village of 2500 people in a wooded area of the Belgian countryside, approximately 20km(12.4m) from the ancient college town of Leuven, with a student dominated population of 150,000.

The main stage, with a capacity of 70,000, presented a total of twenty-six acts over three days, with twenty-seven acts on the 15,000 capacity Pyramid Marquee stage. Most performances on both stages ran one hour each, with Sting, Roxy Music, the Black Crowes, and Laurent Garnier and some of the other closing acts running 1:15 - 1:30.

End times vary, but the main stage closes on average at 1:30 AM, with the Marquee stage ending very late on Friday, June 29 (16:00), otherwise also averaging 13:30 hours.

THIRTY MINUTE MAGIC

Due to the tight scheduling, most changeovers are held to thirty minutes, with five-fifteen minutes added for the bigger acts. FOH engineers are not allowed to access the mains during changeover.

They received line checks through headphones and monitors at the mix position, and there are no exceptions. Automation on the main stage was limited to mute grouping, as there was no time for soundchecks/programming.

For the main stage, two Midas XL4 FOH and two H3000 were on stage, and each desk had a double set of mics assigned to it. Backline kit was positioned on rolling risers. This combined with the double micing arrangements to enable short changeover times.

Photo #2: Things Are Looking up in Belgium

The Marquee stage had a Yamaha4K FOH and Midas XL3 onstage, with similar rolling riser backline arrangements and a triple set of mcs, allowing for simultaneous micing of an act, presentation of an act, and unmicing of an act. Subsequent to evaluation of a group of differing loudspeaker designs, the Adamson Y-Axis/18 line array was chosen as the FOH system for both stages. The standard Y-Axis rigging frame supports sixteen Y/18s, but a special version was manufactured for EML, sound company for the event, that was capable of supporting 24 Y/18 FOH boxes per side. In addition, an array of sixteen Adamson Y-Axis/10 mini line array cabinets will be flown in a center cluster format.

The Adamson Y/18 contains two proprietary 18in kevlar drivers, two proprietary 9in kevlar drivers, and two JBL 2451. Y/10 contains two proprietary 10in kevlar drivers, one 9in, and one 2451. These arrays are supported by 48X EML dual 18in subs, and 24X Martin F2 stacks for delay.

The Marquee stage is sited in a 6,000 seat tent, with capacity for another 9,000 punters outside. FOH is eight Adamson Y-Axis/18 per side, supported by sixteen Adamson dual 18in subs, four stacks of Adamson MH225/B218 for fill, and 24X Martin F2 stacks on the lawn.

Lab Gruppen amplification was consistent for main and fill systems for both stages. Lab Gruppen 4000 were used on subs/lows/mids (48X main stage, 48X Marquee stage), and Lab Gruppen 2000 powered highs (12X on the main stage and 12X on the Marquee stage).

There are 96X channels of BSS Active splitters served the main stage, with a 48-channel EML split on the Marquee. Both stages had toys from BSS, TC, Focusrite and Tube Tech. Loudspeaker management devices from BSS and XTA controlled all FOH/support systems.

Cue-wise, the Main stage had 24X EML HDP (JBL 15in + 2451) wedges, with 16X EML HDP on the Marquee. All wedge crossover control came from Klark Teknik crossovers. Two dozen Lab Gruppen 1600s powered the main stage wedges, with sixteen 1600s assigned to the Marquee boxes.

Other production details including lighting are noted in the sidebar, along with the performance list and schedule. It was obvious that Werchter remains a prestigious event, even as we view it two years into its second quarter century of entertainment.

 

WERCHTER FESTIVAL Production Staff

Herman Schueremans
Patrick Demoustier
Walter D`Haese, Production Manager (since 1989)
Philip Lengele, Main Stage Manager (since 1989)
Alain Vanisacker, Marquee Stage Manager (since 1995)
Olivier Demoustier, Lights

Werchter Main Stage

Stageco 30m-20m Stage

EML Audio Systems

(48X) Adamson Y-18 Line Array (main L/R)
(48X) EML Sub 2x18in
(16X) Adamson Y-10 (secondary main L/R)
(24X) Martin f2 stacks
(48X) Lab Gruppen 4000 (sub-low-mid)
(12X) Lab Gruppen 2000 (HF)
(2X) Midas XL4
Various BSS, TC, Focusrite, Tube Tech
(24X) EML HDP
(24X) Lab Gruppen 1600
(2x) Midas H3000
96-ch BSS active splitters

AC Distro & Rigging

170m Prolyte F52
(3X) Powershop Generators 400 KVA
(3X) 400A
(3X) 700A (40X) Loadstars 1ton Lights
(9X) Loadstars 2ton Sound
(4X) Loadstars 1ton Sound

Lights

Wholelhog, Avolite
ADB 196ch x 2kW
(350X) cans
(40X) VL6c
(24X) VL 2416

Marquee (tent) Stage

Stageco 16m-10m Stage

EML + Lagoona (France) Combined Systems

(16X) Adamson Y-18 Line Array (indoor)
(16X) Adamson SUB 2 x 18 (indoor)
(4X) Adamson MH225+B218 (front fills)
(24X) Martin f2 stacks (outdoor PA)
(48X) Lab Gruppen 4000 (sub-low-mid)
(12X) Lab Gruppen 2000 (HF)
(1X) Yamaha PM 4000
BSS, TC, Focusrite, Tube Tech
(16X) EML HDP
(16X) Lab Gruppen 1600
(1X) Midas XL3
(48X) EML TRAFO

AC Distro & Rigging

(16X) Loadstar 1 ton for lights
100m Prolyte F52
(2X) Powershop Generators 400 KVA
(3X) 125A
(3X) 300A

Lights

Wholelhog, Avolite
ADB 150ch x 2kW
(210X) cans
(18X) VL2c
(18X) VL5
(16X) 2402

July/August 2001 Live Sound International