Header Image by Roger Ho
Q: How do you say “good stuff” in Creole slang?
A: “Bonnaroo”
No, seriously. And now that Rock The House has been behind the scenes at this fantastic music festival, we couldn’t agree with the name more. Eager to hear a little more about the magic behind Bonnaroo? We got you!
What is Bonnaroo?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock OR you just teleported to 2022 from the past, you probably know that Bonnaroo is a large annual music festival featuring huge acts like Stevie Nicks, Machine Gun Kelly, Mt. Joy, Tool, and an enormous variety of musical talents.
Photo by Brian Lasky
Why was Rock The House at Bonnaroo?
We’re glad you asked! While we’ve provided sound and/or special effects at several music festivals (Abbey Road on the River, Edgewater LIVE, Euclid Beach LIVE, Forecastle, WonderStruck), we were pumped when SBHH Events’ Bonnaroo production manager, John, asked us to help with one of the world’s BEST festivals. When planning for this year’s event, he had the opportunity to combine and consolidate vendor types and approached RTHAV.
RTHAV was able to provide three distinct festival production services throughout Bonnaroo.
- Full-service stages: we provided any combination of audio, video, lighting, DJ backline, staging, and turn key operators and designers for Where In The Woods, Galactic Giddy Up, The Rhythm ROOm, Bacardi Beach, and more.
- Site & environmental lighting: we created areas that furthered the creative mission of the festival while providing fun and visually appealing spaces. Fun Fact: we provided 300+ disco balls, which were hung all over the grounds at Where In The Woods.
- Smaller AV activations: floating teams managed events such as pop-up DJ interviews, on-site weddings, and more.
“There are always things that don’t go as planned—site plans change, structural drawings shift, and other obstacles come our way. But we always kept our heads high and pushed through, ultimately delivering a stellar audio-visual experience despite the many hurdles we had to traverse.”
–Andrew, RTHAV Lighting Designer
Between our talented, adaptable technicians and our top-notch equipment, there wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. RTHAV was able to provide a professional and timely finished product for our client, and the dedicated work of our techs (the real MVPs) allowed us to stay on task, work late, and create some amazing things.
“The whole team was awesome, but those who stuck out to me were AVL Technicians Gordon Foust, Alyssa Tauch, and Danny Morales. Their ability to float to each and every stage and activate the stages gave the rest of the team the opportunity to focus on their own tasks.”
–Garrett, RTHAV Project Manager
What equipment did Rock The House use at Bonnaroo?
From video walls and lighting to audio and special effects equipment, we utilized a truckload of tech at Bonnaroo.
- Chauvet Color Strike M: A versatile strobe light that doubles as a wash fixture with 180° tilt range to throw bright, saturated color wherever it’s needed.
- Elation Proteus Rayzor 760: A compact yet extremely powerful IP65-rated wash-effects fixture with fast continuous pan and tilt motion, the Proteus Rayzor 760’s SparkLEDs offer a prominent and innovative LED pixel effect with dedicated high brightness pixels inside the large front lenses for additional layers of creativity.
- Astera Ax2 PixelBar: An LED bar with a built-in battery for stage, events, and film lighting, Astera’s Wireless PixelBar is a linear wash fixture that offers ultra-high color rendering, digital color calibration, and a native 21° beam.
- Yestech LED: These LED tile panels can be used indoors or outdoors as wall panels, dance floors, and much more.
- GrandMA 3 Light Console: The workhorse of the range, the grandMA3 provides the perfect combination of power and physical size, making it probably the most versatile lighting console available.
Wonderful new additions to our inventory were the Midas Pro series consoles and the Midas DL231. Both gave us extreme flexibility for the rock ’n’ roll stage, “Cowboy Giddy Up.”
“The key to a successful event like Bonnaroo is in strength of design and installation, creative use of products, and nimbleness as needs change during the final steps of planning and on-site production. These are all areas where RTHAV shines.”
–Ryan Konikoff, Partner & COO
What’s in Rock The House’s music festival future?
It was such an amazing experience being able to help bring Bonnaroo to life. There’s nothing better than seeing your team work together and your hard work pay off in such an EPIC way; to see attendees smiling, grooving, and just having the time of their lives at an event that you had a hand in…it’s beyond words.
That said, we’ve also got all the love for smaller-scale music festivals and events! So whether you’re an event planner for local community gatherings or a production manager for a destination event like Bonnaroo, we’re ready—and pumped—to get to work on helping you create and execute an experience that ROCKS. Reach out today so we can get to work!