Switzerland-Gurten festival takes place annually on a clearing a top the Gurten foothills on the Swiss Alps by the capital city of Bern.The four-day festival originated in 1977.Access to the festival site up on the mountain is via one street,which can only be travelled in one direction at a time.The entire festival set-up takes about a month,and another two weeks for the teardown.
Artists travel in special shuttles with priority on the road,there's also a heli-pad set up for medical emergencies.The general population also arrives by'Gurtenbahn'a local equivalent of a cable car.Some people choose to hike the 45 minute trek to the site.Practically all choose to stay and camp for the duration of the show.Due to the site's constraints and access,a limit of 18,000 people per day is set for the festival.
Notably,Gurten Festival has made some efforts to be'green'.This year the organizers participated again in the international initiative of Viva con Agua campaigns for global clean drinking water and education projects.The organisation is well known for innovative donation actions,such as the one used at Gurten Festival,where Viva con Agua puts clearly visible bins for used cups and bottles all over the festival ground and next to the drink-stands.
The organisation regularly empties these bins and redeems the cups'deposit at the festivals catering stands for funding their well and other clean water projects.Also to power the festival,the typical generators aren't used,instead they have permanent connections to the Swiss electricity network and the utility companies use this festival for research purposes(eg.what happens in the network if a lot of extra energy is required for a short period of time).They also claim that the power for the festival comes only from hydropower.
The audio setup had two days to organise;sound design and system setup was headed by Sven Gerber of Livesound and supported by Jochen Sommer of Adamson Europe GmbH.Livesound's history spans as far back as the festival,and they now do a lion's share of the country's summer music festivals,and have expanded their business to include corporate events,direct sales,and permanent installation markets.
Traditionally,since Livesound became an Adamson Y-Axis partner in 2005,Gurten Fest has had Y18's on its main stage.This year's festival saw an opening for Livesound to take on Adamson's new E15's system and they did not hesitate to try out the new system.The E15 system was dispatched from the UK to Adamson's Hamburg warehouse in Germany,where it was prepped and shipped to Switzerland.
The Festival's principal stage where artists such as Lenny Kravitz,Snow Patrol,Norah Jones,The Roots,Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds,and Gorillaz Sound System performed,the main system consisted of 24 Adamson E15's,15 Adamson T21 subs which were divided into two stacks of six enclosures placed on L&R of the stage,with three cabinets in the centre,eight Adamson SpekTrix were used as out-fills,and eight more for near and lip-fills.Eight Adamson Y18's were used on delay towers behind the FOH position.
Jochen Sommer of Adamson Europe adds,"The(Adamson E15's)got raving feedback from many engineers of acts such as Snow Patrol,Norah Jones,Nick Brave and the backbeats,Casper,Züri West,and Lenny Kravitz."
Thomas Gfeller,technical director of Livesound explains,"We did a four-day test drive of the new Adamson E15 in combination with our T21 Subs.The E15 delivers much more power at a reduced weight compared to any array in the market.The system's consistencies in the horizontal plane,as well as superior resolution even at highest SPL were very impressive."
