Headstash

Road To Wakarusa: Light, Sound and Stage Design

Wakarusa 2011 - Photo Credit: Jessie Popper

 

In our “Road To Wakarusa” series, we’ll talk to artists, fans and organizers about what makes the event special and what to expect this summer, as we approach the 2012 event.

The ninth annual Wakarusa takes place in Ozark, AR from May 31 to June 3 and features Pretty Lights, Primus, Umphrey’s McGee, Big Gigantic and EOTO.

 

For more information on Wakarusa, including the full lineup, ticket prices and analysis, visit our 2012 Festival Guide or the festival’s official website.

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As Wakarusa’s production manager, Eric Mayers wears quite a few hats.

He’s in charge of securing, renting and designing the festival’s audio systems, designing the stages themselves and making sure they’re well staffed. He also helps create the hectic schedules artists follow for arrival, sound check, performance and departure.

If that wasn’t enough, the six-year Waka veteran also handles the lighting companies to make sure each stage has the necessary equipment to suit each act.

We caught up with Mayers just a few months before the event to talk about the uniqueness of Wakarusa, what organizers have in store for 2012 and how to create a festival that can cater to acts as diverse as Pretty Lights, Primus and The Avett Brothers without skipping a beat.

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Headstash Magazine: What do you guys have in store this year for the festival that's uniquely different than year's past aside from differences in the lineup?

EM: Every year we try to improve the overall production value, whether that is a new lighting design, new technologies, new equipment or new visual elements.

Wakarusa 2011 - Photo Credit: Jessie Popper

We brought in an artist that does a bunch of terrestrial designs. He’s coming into all the tents and also the Main Stage and basically using these stretch fabric forms to create non-linear screens. We're going to be doing projections with some new technologies utilizing moving light projectors.

They act like a standard video projector would but you can focus them and aim them wherever you want so they can spin 360 degrees in any direction. We’re trying to really bring in the entire area of the tents where people are at, so if you’re in the back of the tent, it doesn't feel like you're in the back of the tent. You're in a fully actualized space.

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We’re also bringing in some different artists to create some installations in the campgrounds and some other locations on site just to have more eye candy and create more places that you'd like to go and venture to and check out.

I've also worked really diligently on improving the overall audio quality that we have on all the stages. I've got a couple new vendors coming in and bringing some great new gear that's going to support everything that we have going on whether it’s The Avett Brothers or Pretty Lights.

Obviously the fidelity needs for both of those artists are remarkably different, but they need to play the same stage. So we take everybody's needs into consideration and I think we've done that really well.

HM: How does all the differing set design and lighting design fit into Wakarusa’s identity as a festival that prides itself on a diverse lineup?

EM: The way that I come at it from a production level is that we try to have the best quality gear but also have the best quality engineers and staff and crew to help support those systems and support the band that comes in. It's really two sided.

On one hand, it’s what the festival attendees don't see. We work really hard on hitting the marks on great gear, sticking to our schedule, making sure that the bands have what they need and what they are promised when they come in so that the bands have a great time and get up on stage and perform their best.

Wakarusa 2011 - Photo Credit: Jessie Popper

When they leave, they let their team know that they had a great time and everything ran really well. What that does is it helps us continue to secure great talent year in and year out.

On the other side of the coin, there's a ton of festivals out there and a lot of them have the same talent and different reach in the country, so we try to distinguish ourselves with great looking, great sounding shows, a festival space that's laid out properly and comfortably and looks good.

HM: It seems like this year  are giving a lot of bands multiple sets and timeslots. What’s the thought process behind that?

EM: The festival is in a pretty remote part of the country that people are travelling to and we're going to be out there for a few days. We want to try to afford a band's fans the opportunity to see them in two different spaces.

Maybe they're on the Main Stage in front of 25,000 people and then we put them in an intimate, smaller tent that has a completely different feel and allows the band to perform a completely different set. It also gives attendees with scheduling conflicts to have a second chance.

HM: Yeah, I really like that idea. Can you talk a little more about setting up lighting design for such different artists? What are some of the biggest challenges with planning that?

EM: It's an interesting puzzle trying to come up lighting with for an electronica band at 3:00 a.m. that also has to work for an Americana band in the afternoon on the same stage. We take a close look at what technologies are out there.

Do we want to go with a standard conventional light? Do we want to go with LED lights? Do we want them to be moving? Do they need to be static? How much power do we have a available at that stage?

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We have almost entirely new lighting configurations on the stages. On the Main Stage, I really leaned on a much more modular look this year where these “pods” will fly in and come in at different heights and different angles, so I can get a bunch of different looks throughout the weekend. This also allows for the band to have some creative control.

Wakarusa 2011 - Photo Credit: Jessie Popper

I talk to lighting companies and lighting deisgners and take everyone’s needs into account. This year, we have a full, three-dimensional computer with an enormous screen that has our full stage, so they don’t need to spend five or six hours programming.

HM: Having been with the festival for six years and Wakarusa being extremely well established, does that make it easier to plan not needing to start from scratch or harder to try and top yourself each year?

EM: It makes it easier in that our systems are becoming more reliable. We see the systems from year to year that work. Obviously the ones that don't work we change. The longer we are together, the fewer poorly working systems are still out on site. All departments are totally efficient and they've been working together long enough that we know what to expect from eachother .

HM: For you, what’s the most rewarding or best part of planning this massive event.

EM: The best part of the festival for me is when nobody is there. [Laughs.] No, I’m just kidding, the best part is getting doors open on time and having everyone excited to see it all come together.

The other rewarding part is just the bands being able to come up and do what they do to the best of their ability in this environment that you have created for them, and have them walk off-stage, saying they played a great set.

HM: We’re really looking forward to Wakarusa, Eric. I appreciate the time.

EM: Thanks a lot. Me, too.

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For more information on Wakarusa, including the full lineup, ticket prices and analysis, visit our 2012 Festival Guide or the festival’s official website.