CHAUVET Professional lights new-look Splashy Fen main stage

South Africa:

Splashy Fen marked its 35th anniversary with a redesigned main stage, introducing a 90m x 30m dome structure that became a central visual feature of this year’s festival. To maximise the impact of the new roof, lighting designer Shaniel Laloo turned to CHAUVET Professional’s COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures, using them to transform the dome into an extension of the show itself.

Hosted in the foothills of South Africa’s Drakensberg mountains, Splashy Fen welcomed a diverse line-up including Goldfish, Billy Raffoul and Jack and the Weatherman. Laloo’s brief was not only to light the performers but also to bring the newly covered stage environment to life.

“This is the first time having Splashy Fen under a dome, and I wanted it to pop at different moments throughout the festival,” he explained.

A total of 18 COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorised battens were deployed across the stage. Twelve fixtures were positioned above the central video wall, while the remaining six were placed on the stage deck. The fixtures were used to wash the dome in colour, create pixel-mapped effects and generate visual separation between headline artists and their backing musicians.

“They fanned out a beautiful curtain of light,” said Laloo. “This fixture also worked out great to separate the main artists visually from their bands. It handled a lot of the pixel work.”

According to Laloo, the versatility of the fixtures proved particularly valuable given the festival’s varied programme, which ranged from intimate acoustic performances to high-energy electronic acts. “I wanted to group the fixtures to create big looks but still have good coverage over the artists,” he concluded.