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Norwest Brisbane supplies audio for the Brisbane Festival

Starting in July, Norwest were providers of Audio for the entire Brisbane Festival, a celebration of multi-cultural arts and music that was spread of the Suburbs of Brisbane for nearly three weeks and over 20 venues. Starting with “The Black arm Band” featuring a line-up of some of the most respected names in Australian music performing works from

“an inspirational songbook of contemporary Aboriginal life” “The Black Arm Band celebrates music as an instrument of identity, political resistance, cultural resilience and a call to freedom. Against a backdrop of lyrical and provocative film images, The Black Arm Band promises to be a unique Festival experience symbolising the step towards mutual recognition between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians”.

“The Black Arm Band celebrates music as an instrument of identity, political resistance, cultural resilience and a call to freedom. Against a backdrop of lyrical and provocative film images, The Black Arm Band promises to be a unique Festival experience symbolising the step towards mutual recognition between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians”.

The audio director for The Black Arm Band was well-known audio designer John O’Donnell (pictured below). John specified and Norwest provided a system of 30 Resolution 5, 10 Resolution 4D and 12 F218 subwoofers with Resolution 2 infill for the event held on Brisbane’s Riverstage. Around 8000 people attended this spectacular start to Brisbane Festival. Control was Midas 3000 and Yamaha PM5D consoles. System crew were Will Davy, Brendan Keane, Matt Whitehead and Gavin Rossetti.

Running for the duration of Brisbane Festival was the world famous “Speigeltent”. Norwest engineers Heath Storrie, Owen Hitchens and Luke Symons operated a system of Nexo PS 15s and subs flown with multiple delays zones of AT SS12. Acoustic Technologies SFM24 were the monitors of choice. A diverse program of entertainment and panel discussions ran for 19 days culminating on the final evening with a wrap party for everybody involved in the festival. Norwest are no strangers to the Speigeltent, having installed audio in this tent for six different festivals over the years.

Opera at Brookfield was held in Brisbane’s rural western suburbs. The Brisbane Philharmonic performed opera classics with some of Australia’s best opera voices in the beautiful historic Brookfield Showgrounds. Norwest chose our legendary Acoustic Technologies Blackbird system to cover the width of the showgrounds and deliver pristine orchestral audio to the audience which was spread across the venue on picnic rugs and grass. Garry Hall’s exceptional system design and mix drew a stream of praise from the attendees, most commenting on the transparent acoustic sound he delivered throughout the day. System crew were Garry Hall, Cam Elias, Brendan Keane and Will Davy.

Electronique and Alice 21 were dance & rhythm based performances. These events were both week-long installations for the Norwest crew, with Electronique being held in the roof-top car park of a shopping centre and Alice 21 in the back alley behind the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts. Legendary sound engineer Chris Ridgeway designed and operated both events and chose to use a system of Resolution 5 and F218 speakers for the system’s superior vocal clarity and musicality. System crew were Nathan Davis and Dave Muldoon.

The “Across Brisbane” program of Brisbane Festival showcased Brisbane’s multicultural community. Into Africa, the first event held at Yeronga Park, was a celebration of African dance, music and culture. Cam Walker, Mick George and Gavin Rossetti operated a Funktion 1 resolution system for this well-attended event which featured some amazing African musical acts and displays of traditional dance.

The following weekend, the boys backed their faithful Resolution system into the truck and took it off to Henderson park in Macgregor for “Scheherazade”, the next Across Brisbane event. Scheherazade presented a program of middle-eastern Music, art, dance and food.  The day’s performance includes roots and Middle Eastern musicians Raz Bin Sam and the I Lion Band, funk fusion group Camoon, Middle Eastern meets Mediterranean act Muziz and many more. Cam Walker was once again out front on the faithful Soundcraft MH$ and Gav Rossetti performed some very challenging monitor duties on stage with a pair of O1V and a collection of Nexo PS15 wedges. All instruments were naturally acoustic with only 2 DI boxes used all day. The Funktion 1 system’s superior mid-range clarity made it the obvious choice for this job.

“The Fiveways” was a surreal music theatre myth that revealed a story about an ordinary corner of Brisbane city and its hidden rarities.

This world premiere production commissioned by Brisbane Festival 2008 and written, composed and directed by one of Brisbane’s most talented artists, Eugene Gilfedder, features a stellar Brisbane cast of quirky characters. The Goldfish girl, the jockey, TAB punters, the Chinese takeaway lady and a real estate agent come together in this extraordinary new theatre work that highlighted contemporary Brisbane amidst rapid change. FOH engineer Matt Whitehead used the Funktion 1 Resolution 4 system to it's best, and achieved outstanding clarity and projection at this event held in a back-street car park in Brisbane's West End. Matt was assisted by Mark Sullivan on radio-mic duties.

Josh Wildenberg was kept busy during BrisFest with "Brisbane Backyards".
This unique program saw normal suburban backyards playing host to small concert evenings featuring local Brisbane acts. Josh toured a system of RCF 322s and Yamaha O1V to these 7 events over 10 days, drawing praise for his efforts in what could sometimes be challenging environments. There's no accepted technical standard for your average backyard!

Our final Brisbane Festival gig was "Symphony at the Shore". Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Mozart were performed by the outstanding Brisbane Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antoni Bonetti with special guest, Simon Tedeschi, Australia’s leading concert pianist. Gary Hall flew a system of Acoustic Technologies TLA 312 line arrays to present the 100 piece orchestra to the picturesque outdoor surrounds of Riverside Park, part of the new Northshore Development in Hamilton. Once again, Gary demonstrated his talent of achieving near-perfect transparency from such a large amount of acoustic sources and we're still receiving letters of praise from what must be the most critical of all audiences, the classical music fans.

Gary mixed the show on a Yamaha PM1D, while Will Davy took care of the other end on a Midas XL4. System engineers Cam Elias and Brendan Keen provided expert assistance as usual.

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