Ah The Wickerman.An ancient pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth (ok I am winging this bit) and used to such great effect in the 1973 Brit flick of the same name. Edward Woodward's naieve police officer, Sergeant Howie, is lured to a mythical island off the west coast of Ireland, Summer Isle, which is run by Christopher Lee's pagan peer, Lord Summerisle, to investigate a missing child case but get caught up in strange rituals. Anyway it is a fantastic film so watch it but please don't get it confused with the limp US remake starrring Nicholas Cage. Anyway at the end of it all there is a 30ft high Wickerman than is burnt.
This is the centre piece of Scotland's own leftfield and hip boutique Wickerman Festival which takes place atop a cliff in South-West Scotland (Galloway & Dumfries,if you are interested) . The festival has carved out a nice little niche for itself in its relatively short history. And it has long looked to Viking Audio and their Turbosound Floodlight system to provide an audio system capable of dealing with the ecletic mix of rock, folk and world music acts the festival is known for. BUT this year things were a little different, Viking opted to use Flex Array for the Summerisle main stage freeing up the Floodlight for duties on other stages around the site.
The main stage caters for around 8,000 people and this year highlights included acts such as The Dub Pistols, Dodgy, Gary Numan (yes, that Gary "Cars, Friends Electric" Numan), Alabama 3, (title theme to The Sopranos), KT Tunstall, The Cuban Bros and the legendary Fall led by the infamous Mancunian Mouth, Mark E Smith.
Set up ran nice and easy in beautiful summer sunshine and blue skies - apparently they get that up there in Scotland - though usually all I've got from hiking the Munroes is trenchfoot and midge bites. Turbosound's Paul McMullen was on hand to enjoy the sunshine and help rig the PA - an easy job as you can see.
The main stage system compromised of 8x TFA-600H and 4x TSW-218 per side run from an amp rack comprising of 2x T-25 & 3x T-45 and controlled by LMS-D26s. It ended up looking a little like this
The system was turned on, tweaked and the field was walked. Lots of smiling faces and, as the further sections were reached, heads shaking in disbelief at the performance, throw and clarity of such a small system.
Anyway then with the opening of the festival the proper Scottish summer weather arrived to add some atmosphere in the form of a Haar (or summer sea mist) as can be seen below. But then what is a festival in these great British Islands without precipitation in one form or another? Apparently the system held together well despite the changes in humidity and temperature over the two days and the occaisional strong on shore breeze.
ANORAKS AT THE READY? LETS PARTY!!!!!
In the end the skies might not have been clear but the PA sure was!
And Steve at Viking is looking forward to getting to grips with Flex when dealing with his diverse range of work over the coming months.
And the last word, or image, goes to the Viking Truck...
