Golden Run: new festival series launched

World’s biggest dance and Drum and Bass acts hit the regions

Tom Anderson, freelance Production Manager, talks to us about the new Golden Run series, keeping it simple whilst out to impress, and how good it feels to be back in the saddle.

Launching a new series of festivals during a pandemic

Hamish Pinkham who leads the team behind Rhythm and Vines had been talking about bringing the R&V magic to the rest of the country for a couple of years, but most were surprised when he announced mid-pandemic that he was launching a new festival series in January 2022. Promoted by Endeavour Live and Live Nation NZ, the Golden Run was born with Gold Rush in Waihi on January 3rd, Golden Sounds at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim on the 5th, and Golden Lights at Trusts Arena in Henderson, Auckland on the 7th.

The festivals featured Wilkinson, Skream, Prospa, Lee Mvtthews, Mollie Collins, Sin, Syrup, Emwa, Poris, Rayne, Ana Agiüs, Grommie, and Hazey. At the last minute they unfortunately lost Dimension from all three events, and 1991, Culture Shock and K Motionz from the Waihi show, due to Ministry of Health COVID requirements.

Tom Anderson took on the challenge of making it all happen.

Keeping it simple

For Tom, familiar with many of the acts from Rhythm and Vines, production managing the festival tour during a pandemic was all about creating a concept that was simple enough to be able to make changes, possibly frequent changes, “It was essentially the same show in three different locations. We knew that due to COVID-19 there would be line-up changes throughout the process, and we wanted to cater for that.” At the same time, he didn’t want to scrimp on the grandiose look and feel you would expect at a drum and bass event, “We wanted to impress and include stages that were bigger than at the other festivals with IMAG and Notch. Using tried and trusted suppliers was going to be key.”

Tom worked with Jason Steel from Negative Space as designer and tour operator to develop a standard design for the three festivals that the acts would be happy to work with. Being all DJs meant explicit requirements from the acts were minimal, “Ones that did have specific requests were amiable to using the house package with minimal adding and subtracting. I think in light of the conditions we are currently working under, the acts were definitely very receptive to our ideas.”

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Jason based the design around the recent Wilkinson tour with a five by five diamond riser in the centre and a six by six diamond truss above, six by six upstage screen and IMAG running on both sides, “We added the festival feel with eight G flames, ten Co2 jets and six ten watt lasers with Pangolin BEYOND software for the post sunset sets. Jason used a GrandMA2, D3 Server and Notch to run the show taking full advantage of its capability to control the overall look for the lighting, vision and cameras.”

Tom worked with different suppliers for the three locations and Dexta Hancox was brought in as Blenheim Production Manager, a fellow freelancer who frequently works on festivals like Homegrown and Electric Avenue. For Gold Rush at Waihi, Oceania provided audio, video, and lighting, with Negative Space supplying the lasers, and Live FX supplying the Live FX G-FLames and Co2. Similarly for Golden Lights in Auckland, but with Western Audio taking over the audio supply. For Golden Sounds at Blenheim, Sound People supplied the audio, AC Lighting added the lighting and SFX, and Illumination and Optics supplied the video.

Tom adds, “As we were outdoors and all audio suppliers used d&b audiotechnik (J at Gold Rush Waihi and Golden Sounds Blenheim, and KSL at Golden Lights Auckland) with D80s and array processing, we mapped all sites using d&b NoizCalc which allowed us to keep sound consents in order whilst providing great punter experience at the stages.”

And the result, “It looked and sounded amazing and logistically it worked really well, thanks partly to luck being on our side in terms of COVID, but also to the staff who worked on it. Everything ran smoothly from the production side. We had great stage managers and everyone worked as a team. For many it was the first show in months and the team worked really hard to make it a success. We definitely got it where it needed to be but the time commitment compared to pre-pandemic festivals was significant. Site visits can be complicated during lockdowns.” Cue ironic laughter.

Back in the saddle

The real highlight for Tom was the feeling he got as everything came together for the final set with lasers, flames, Notch, and IMAG going hard out, “It was such a special reminder of why we still do this, even in these ‘interesting’ times. Not just for the audience but for the large group of people who make it happen.”

Caring for the crew was an important part of pulling the festival series together, “Not just the COVID-19 factor meaning a closed stage, masks and so on, but we were also concerned with people working longer days for the first time in a while and in brutally hot conditions. The team had to get used to being on their feet again all day or programming through the night, so we shifted things around to make sure everyone got enough rest. It worked really well and by the third one we were an hour quicker at load out.”

With Bay Dreams cancelled, Rhythm and Vines and the Summer series both postponed, Endeavour Live and Live Nation NZ’s commitment to bringing these festivals to fruition has to be admired. Not just for audiences desperate to let their hair down and enjoy a mass dance party, but for the behind-the-scenes crew. There is every intention to repeat the series next year, “The series made an impact, we kept the quality consistent across the different regions and we’ll be back next year, bigger and better.”

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