Sweden’s Valand No Myth

Valand is a unique restaurant and nightclub situated along Avenyn, the main street in Gothenburg, Sweden. Located in a beautiful building that once served as an art museum, and named after Volund, an exquisite jeweler of Nordic mythology, the club is a landmark of Gothenburg nightclub history and an often-used stage for touring bands.

Sadly, on the 8th of November 2003 a fire broke out on stage - probably started by stage effects - and large parts of the dance floor along with all the technical gear was severely damaged. Luckily no one was injured thanks to a quick and efficient evacuation.

The process of restoring the venue was started immediately, and in the spring of 2004 Diroco Sound and Light of Gothenburg was contracted to create an indoor lighting scheme, as well as dance floor and stage rig that would be powerful yet easy for the DJ to control. Lighting designers Marcus Persson and Lina Denne of Diroco had clear opinions on how they wanted to design the rig and chose a Martin lighting system.

Prior to the fire, the ceiling had been covered in truss, cables and fixtures, but since the room is quite small Marcus and Lina wanted to clean out all unnecessary equipment except for the 1.2-meter disco ball in the middle of the space. “Our idea was to use fewer but stronger and more efficient fixtures,” Lina stated.

Instead of using the customary trussing, fixtures were attached to vertical pipes anchored to the ceiling. Moreover, a discreet duct for the cables, painted black, effectively hid all traces of the electrical wiring. “In this way the height of the room was kept, the fixtures had great turning radius and the room was notably cleaner,” Lina commented.

In order to give the club a colorful look that even Volund would be proud of, Diroco installed 4 MX-10 scanners, 4 MAC 250 Krypton moving heads, 4 CX-10 color and pattern projectors, 2 Wizard effect lights and an Atomic 3000 strobe. Beam projections are maximized by a Jem ZR 24/7 Hazer, providing both a mid-air projection canopy and atmospheric haze.

To control both the stage and disco lighting an easily maneuverable and easily programmable controller was needed. It was also important that the controller have a locking feature for fear of too many hands changing the programming. “We chose the Martin LightJockey combined with a Martin Fingers which fulfilled our expectations,” stated Marcus Persson, who also took on technical design and programming duties. “Since we wouldn’t have much time for programming on location we had great help in our own showroom, where we rigged the equipment and made all the programming except for the positions. When everything was in place at Valand, all we had to do was the final adjustments.” Valand reopened on August 27, 2004.