Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis

Live Earth, the 24-hour, 7-continent concert series that took place on 7/7/07, had the express goal of ‘using music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis’ and used new Green Event Guidelines to reach that aim. More precisely, Live Earth’s Green Production Mission states: “To create a ‘greener’ concert model that embodies the Live Earth message and leaves the venues and host cities with a ‘how to’ manual for future low-impact live events (i.e. sustainable progress).”

Point 9 of that mission statement speaks directly to the entertainment lighting industry. “There will also be virtually no tungsten lighting (incandescent lighting) on the show at all. This sort of equipment, still used largely in the live performance world, uses at least twice as much power as discharge or LED technology (which is) 75-90% more efficient than incandescent lighting.”

Keeping in line with that directive, Martin LED Stagebar 54s were used across the front of the Wembley Stadium stage in London to uplight the artists and as eye candy on the edge of the photographers’ pit. Overhead were discharge source Martin MAC 2000 Washes.

Produced by Control Room, Live Earth staged concerts in London, New Jersey, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg – as well as special broadcast events in Antarctica, Kyoto and Washington, DC. More than 100 of the world’s best musical acts like The Police, Genesis, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson took part.

Wembley Stadium
At Wembley Stadium in London a crowd of 65,000 gathered for nine hours of environmentally conscientious music. Lighting design was handled by one of the industry’s top LDs, Patrick Woodroffe, with assistance from Adam Bassett. The London show served as a template production for the other shows regarding set design and generic layout of lighting. Lighting design was based around a concept rig in terms of trusses, overhead fixtures and approximate layout but it was up to the individual LDs at other sites to adapt the rig to fit their stage and local availability of equipment according to Adam Bassett.

The London rig included approximately 76 of Martin’s new LED Stagebar 54L fixtures along with MAC 2000 Washes supplied by PRG. The basic brief was to create a site that used less power overall with consideration made for a mostly daylight show. A rather large quantity of LED lighting was used supported by a backbone of moving heads used to light the stage.

Stagebar 54
Woodroffe was looking for LED footlights with additional amber in order to pair those for more acceptable color tones, including warmer whites, for TV. He found those in the Martin Stagebar 54. The Stagebars - an RGB, Amber and White pixel bar - were located downstage in two rows about 15 feet apart with a camera platform between them. One row on the front edge of the stage pointed out to the audience with a second row used as footlights pointing upstage. In reverse camera shots the continuous line of Stagebars gave a defining edge to the stage.

Other sites
Martin gear was instrumental at other Live Earth sites as well. In Tokyo, Master's Company supplied 36 MAC 700 Washes, 38 MAC 2000 Washes, 28 MAC 600E, 14 MAC 2000 Profiles and a Maxxyz lighting console to Makuhari Messe. In Sydney, Chameleon Touring Systems supplied 8 MAC 2000 Washes, 24 MAC 2000 Profiles and much more to Aussie Stadium with lighting design by Francesco Calvi. In New Jersey, PRG supplied 22 MAC 2000 Washes to Giants Stadium with lighting design by Patrick Dierson.

Live Earth
Live Earth is a project of the SOS campaign and marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by the Alliance for Climate Protection, The Climate Group and other international organizations to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming. All Live Earth venues were designed and constructed by a team of sustainability engineers who addressed the environmental and energy management challenges of each concert site, as well as the operations of sponsors, partners and other Live Earth affiliates. Each venue was not only designed to maintain a minimum environmental impact, but showcased the latest state-of-the-art energy efficiency, on-site power generation, and sustainable facilities management practices.

London
Lighting Designer – Patrick Woodroffe
Assistant LD – Adam Bassett
TV Lighting Director – Mark Kenyon
Operators – Nigel Catmur and Will Charles
Crew Chief – Rich Gorrod
Production Company – PRG
PRG Account Director – Carol Croft