STL and Martin illuminate Leeds Castle Summer Concerts.

Leeds Castle, set on two islands on the River Len in the heart of Kent, has been home to royalty, lords and ladies for over 1000 years. Visitors are transported through 900 years of the castle’s history; an eclectic mix of period architecture, sumptuous interiors and family treasures waiting to be discovered and the gardens offer continuous colour throughout the year.

Leeds Castle is not just a museum but also a place where people meet and special events bring the grounds to life. Conferences, meetings, weddings and banquets are also arranged in the castle and other areas on the estate.

Their summer concerts are always popular, rain or shine, and this year has been no exception. STL Lighting provided and installed the lighting for all of Leeds Castle’s summer concerts in 2007.

Iain Austin, Director of STL Lighting explains, “The brief given to us by the Leeds Castle organisers was to ensure the Orchestra were well lit, spotlights for the conductor position and solo positions with additional lighting for the thrust of the stage.” STL made full use of the white Orbit stage cover using colour washes and patterned gobos projected in to the roof.

MAC 700 washes and MAC 700 profiles were positioned on both the front and rear 12 meter trusses. The MAC 2000’s were spaced along the moat bank in domes.

The MAC 700 range was chosen for the light output, size, weight, colour mixing and animation wheel facilities. Iain was enthusiastic about the MAC 700s, “This was the first time we had used this range of MAC, and we will certainly be using them again. We found them to have great light output, good colours, gobos and surprising speed.”

The MAC 700’s were all supplied to us by Essential Lighting. Iain comments, “We have always found the equipment supplied to us by Essential to be in excellent condition, and they are a very reliable company to work with. This time was no exception.”

The organisers wanted to make full use of the Castle backdrop and asked STL to come up with some interesting ways of incorporating the stage lighting with the lighting of the building.

Iain explained that the MAC 2000s were ideal to create perfect patterned effects on the walls of the castle, “We felt the 2000’s were a good all round fixture, with a larger range of gobos, good light output to cope with the distance we had to throw and colour mixing facilities.” The MAC 2000 came from their own stock.

STL have worked on a number of music events, providing lighting, power distribution and generation solutions to meet client’s needs. They are flexible in the work they do, and they provide and promise outstanding services and lighting/Av solutions. Acts include Simply Red, Jools Holland, Sugarbabes, Supergrass, Bootleg Beatles, Bluetones and many more.

Ends
The Summer concerts were:
July 4th Glenn Miller Orchestra.
July 5th Bootleg Blues Brothers.
July 6th James Bond Spectacular with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
July 7th Classical concert of music from Broadway and Hollywood with the Royal Philharmonic.

Specification
Stage Lighting
12 x MAC 700 Wash
12 x MAC 700 Spot

Castle Lighting
4 x MAC 2000
4 x MAC Domes