Borderlands 2023
Borderlands Music Festival-held in Aurora, New York in September-featured an array of bluegrass, folk, funk, and jam music over 3 days. Headliners included Goose, Trey Anastasia, and moe..
I always humor myself when doing lights during the day. It’s a prime opportunity to find new and exciting looks that I may be too cautious to try in an evening/indoor busking setting. What’s the worst that can happen? The sun is always there. However I took this festival to hone in an entirely different, almost rudimentary skill: Focus
Over the top?
Light focus on a subject will always be the most critical of components to me in any setting. After all, our guests travel sometimes hundreds of miles to SEE their favorite band.
Unfortunately, I never got the chance to run lights through the sunset at this festival. But the focus was never dismissed for any band. Starting at 11am, we had bands almost every hour, with drastically different stage plots. Getting a focus… with 20 minute changeovers… in broad day light. Okay may be I did go over the top on this festival. However, my camera guy begs to differ.
On the final day of load in, after the sun went down, I went ahead and tacked measured distances on the stage to rough in every focus for the day. Once the bands were on locked in on their stage positions, I hopped on deck with a Microsoft Surface in session with my GrandMA2 at Front-of-House and tightened every focus I could. Maybe it made a difference? Maybe it didn’t? However, 12 Martin Viper Washes and 8 Viper Profiles outputting on the stage helped every musician through the day pop. And it didn’t go unnoticed. A patron and long term supporter of the festival showed their gratitude to such a small detail. That to me proved the importance and usefulness of a Festival LD…at 2 in the afternoon on a mid-summer day in Western New York.
