New College Commemoration Ball, Oxford

The extraordinary event took place at one of the biggest, and oldest colleges, the ironically named New College, on 23 June.

The New College Commemoration Ball takes place every three years, sharing the responsibility for the University’s main end of year party with Worcester College and Magdalen College on a rotational basis. Lighting designer Theo Cox returned to the scene of past triumphs at New College with the object of doing something extra special. Stage Electrics’ Bristol office handled the lighting production, with Stagecraft looking after the sound.

The focus of the event, the main stage, later graced by Roni Size, was opened by a 25-strong samba troupe which led a procession through the Venetian carnival themed masked ball. Awaiting them in the partially open-air arena was a rig of some 12 MAC 2000 profiles, 12 MAC 500s, 12 MAC 600s, 8 Atomic 3000 strobes, 4 RoboColor Pro 400s, 2 ZR 33 Hi-Mass foggers and a Roadie X-Stream smoke machine alongside a full set up of Mach Slingshot speakers. At the end of their procession, the rig erupted into life as the Future Vision Project, the brainchild of producer Ned Hawes, kicked into life.

Projected onto four video screens positioned around the arena, the Future Vision Project sought to ‘provide choreographed visual stimulus to a pre-determined soundtrack’. In this, the first public showing of their new work, "4/4 - a dance music odyssey", the music comprised an ambitious repertoire, billed ‘from funk to the future’. Cox and Hawes worked together to create symbiotic lighting effects to work with the projected video, which showed different images on each screen. The flavor varied substantially, with Cox at one time recreating the look and feel of a seventies disco to other times blasting the audience with swathes of strobing light during the drum and bass section. The forty-minute piece climaxed with a special commissioned piece written by Seal producer, Henry Jackman, which depicted the Greek seasons myth, ‘The Rape of Persephone’.

As Hawes says, "The idea behind the piece is to create an environment using sound, video and lighting whereby the MTV generation audience are placed actually inside the music video. We aim to create an event whereby people have to come together to enjoy the show. This is not something that could ever be re-created in your living room or over the Internet."

Roni Size, who was later reported to have been blown away by the visual depiction of his ‘Brown Paper Bag’, followed up with a two-hour set of banging drum and bass. The Bootleg Beatles preceded the shut down of the main arena at 3am with the second showing of the Future Vision Project.

Martin products were also used throughout the rest of the event. Taking a tour around the extensive grounds, with Exterior 600s dotted around filling in the gaps, one could see the fourteenth century Front Quadrangle hosting the 8pm champagne reception adorned with swathes of color provided by 13 MAC 600s in geodesic domes. Also, a 20m heliosphere balloon flew above the area, below which acrobats and trapeze artists performed stunts, providing an excellent projection surface for the MAC 2000s to show off their capabilities.

Moving into the Garden Quad, one could see the carnival atmosphere electrified by a Martin Lighting Director, a tracking system for automated followspots, rigged high above the revelers, tracking each of four 10 foot high stilt walkers as they strutted around the area. MAC 2000s projecting combined gobos as water effects added further to the Venetian feel.

From there, moving through the eerie Monk’s Passage decorated with a number of MAC 250s spinning a variety of gobo patterns all around, one entered Holywell quad, home to the second stage, fairground and food stalls. The atmosphere outside the tent was defined by MAC 2000 projected custom gobos, specially made up for the event by DHA Lighting and showing the image of a hand making the shape of a mask. The MAC 2000s were more than ably assisted by MAC 250s making merry with mirror balls hung from the trees. Inside the tents a rig of 14 MAC 250s, 6 MAC 300s and a rig of Mach Touring series M12T full range speakers perfectly reproduced the yesteryear easy listening tones of Disques Vogues as the revelers strut their stuff.

Finally, moving into the techno area, DJs turned the tables until the end; this fifteenth-century Long Room was filled with an abundance of MiniMACs (both profiles and washes) controlled on a Martin LightJockey. The room also played host to a pair of FiberSource QFXs running different configurations of light pipe up and down the room to extraordinary effect. A monster Mach Touring series M182T subwoofer and M30T top-box set-up created the perfect high-powered audio system to rock the revelers until the 6am close.

Reports after the event stated that the revelers of Oxford had never seen or heard anything like it. The reports are accurate.