White Light supplies low-energy lighting and more to the hugely successful Latitude Festival“One day, all festivals will be like this” wrote the Independent on Sunday about the 2008 Latitude Festival. While they were doubtless commenting on the event’s hugely diverse content, the sentiment also rings true with regard to efficient use of energy, an area in which Latitude is leading the way thanks to the involvement of the Arcola Theatre and their regular collaborator, White Light.
Having established that a fuel cell and low-energy lighting could be used to great effect in a London fringe theatre, the Arcola team now sought to demonstrate that the same approach could be taken in a non-blacked-out tent in daylight in the middle of summer. In association with London Hydrogen Partnership, Logan Energy and BOC, Arcola powered the festival’s Theatre Arena tent using a 5kW Gencore fuel cell. White Light then worked with the Arcola team to provide lighting capable of maximising the available power, the rig including ETC Source Fours fitted with lamps between 375 and 750W, Source Fours fitted with CDM lamps and Chroma-Q Color Blocks which use LED technology. The Color Blocks are just one of an ever increasing range of equipment in White Light’s rental stock based around LEDs, others including the GLP Impression moving washlight, the EvenLED cyclorama light and the Color Blast and Color Blaze from Color Kinetics.
White Light also worked to maximise the event’s overall eco-footprint, as it does with every project with which it is involved as a rental supplier: by re-using equipment rather than purchasing new! As well as lanterns from White Light’s comprehensive rental stock, the Latitude rig was run by long-serving Strand Act6+ dimmers. White Light also supplied Rainbow colour scrollers fitted with the standard White Light colour scroll (detailed in the White Light Reference Guide); these include sixteen carefully chosen colours that can work for many productions, removing the need to construct new scrolls - or, indeed, to pay for new scrolls, since the White Light scrolls are available free of charge with any standard-sized (Source Four or Par) Rainbow scroller rental.
White Light also minimised the negative impact of transportation for the project by scheduling deliveries and collections to the Arcola on the company’s regular, twice-daily West End delivery run. This run is carefully planned to make as many deliveries and collections as possible, reducing the number of vehicles on the roads making special deliveries.
More than just a music festival, Latitude 2008 featured not just performers such as Franz Ferdinand, Martha Wainwright and Beth Orton but also comedians, writers, theatre companies including the Bush Theatre, the Royal Court, Paines Plough, the National Theatre, the RSC and Sadler’s Wells and much more besides.
Further information about Latitude, including details of next year’s event, can be found at www.latitudefestival.co.uk.
Further information about the Arcola Theatre’s sustainability activities can be found at www.arcolaenergy.com.