UK - Held at Battersea Power Station at the end of October, Freeze Festival was two full on days of world class snowboarding, skiing and live music which, in combination with alpine style bars, a shopping village and gourmet food brought the joys of ski and, just as importantly, après ski to south west London.
Working for client Vision Nine (formerly known as Sports Vision) and with Robin Conway as Capital's project manager for the event, the line array tech and crew boss Marty Harrison deployed a Martin Audio LC system with 218 subs for the main stage, where Dave Poynter looked after FOH, Kevin Smith took up the monitor position and Duane Williams handle stage tech duties for sets from Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, DJ Shadow, Mark Ronson and Zane Lowe, amongst others. A smaller version of the system was sited adjacent to the ski jump, and a Meyer UPM system took care of the VIP area.
"This is a huge site, so we probably did as much exercise getting round it as the guys did skiing and snowboarding," says Conway. "We had quite a short set up time, with only a day to get everything ready and getting cabinets up to the top of the ski ramp was a bit of a challenge, but taking the feed from the OB truck, which made it easier to manage."
With the skiers and snowboarders getting air and carving up the slopes and the DJs mixing up a storm, Freeze Festival kept the crowds happy.
"The Capital team was extremely professional and integrated well with our festival stage managers and acoustic consultants," says Vision Nine senior production manager Tom Sabin. "The sound was excellent all over the site and got some great feedback from artists."
