Park Life
Parklife Festival
Manchester, UK
Launched in 2010, Parklife Festival, in Manchester, continues to be a popular annual music event, with this year’s festival welcoming around 80,000 partygoers to its grounds, at Heaton Park. Successfully providing laser packages and a small amount of SFX, on the Temple Stage in 2017, ER were invited to supply the site in full, in 2018.
ER Productions was commissioned by Parklife as the official suppliers of lasers and special effects, having worked with Parklife’s Production Manager, Ryan Esson, for a number of years, including on the Warehouse Project, a series of club nights, and also Snowbombing Festival, in Austria.
ER’s crew of 9, supplied 6 stages and 7 artists with lasers and SFX.
Grime artist, Skepta, headlined the Parklife Main Stage on the Sunday night, and required edgy special effects for his set. ER responded by filling the entire downstage edge with fourteen G-Flame XL’s and twelve CO2 jets. The result was a striking contrast of a wall of flames, followed by a sheet of cold ice.
Two Cyro Fog HP/XL low smoke generators billowed from huge industrial-type pipes, bringing another level of atmospherics to the stage. Controlled by ER’s new Galaxis Control system, 6 long duration Gerbs and 6 Pyro boards fired Red Pyro FX which completed the show’s look.
At the same time U.S rapper, A$AP Rocky, headlined the brand new Valley stage. ER fitted a fourteen metre Pyro Waterfall along the upstage wall. G Flame XL’s, with 8 metre flames, 6 downstage edge Pyro Boards, and 2 High Altitude Firing Positions accompanied it.
Cryo HP/XL and CO2 jets were used in conjunction with 6 Viper deLuxe 2600 Watt fog generators which were strategically placed for the 6 x 20w RGB ops laser heads, to create a stunning looking set.
ER premiered their Stadium Blasters, large CO2 powered, self loading, confetti blowers, on several stages across the festival, including the Parklife Main Stage, The Elrow Stage, and The Hanger. The blasters can be preloaded with up to 10 kilos of confetti and activated using any DMX controlled lighting board.
In the VIP area, 2 Stadium Shots fired 48 kg’s of pink and white confetti, by a Commander Control unit, and fifteen metre single flame jets and CO2 jets helped to create a buzzing party atmosphere, over at the Temple Stage.
ER’s expertise in laser technology also played a large part in the festival’s performances. Indie pop band, The xx, was supported with a laser package of 8 Kinekts and 9 moving head GLP laser heads.
It’s been just a little over a year of ER Productions’ SFX solutions and the requirement shows no sign of slowing.
Co-founder of ER Productions, Ryan Hagan commented, “We are now seeing the fruits of our labour. The SFX side of our company is really growing and that’s what we want to shout about. We have a solid reputation with our lasers; and we’re now delivering good quality SFX packages too.”