Musical holidays in Maribor – Lent Festival 2024 relies on Cameo and LD Systems

Nine days full of music, art, and culture – from 21 to 29 June, the historic city centre of Maribor, Slovenia, hosted the 31st Lent Festival. Once again this year, Slovenia’s largest open-air festival was a magnet for tens of thousands of visitors. National and international artists from all musical genres performed on the large and small stages. In order to cover the stylistic diversity in terms of event technology, the organisers once again relied on a wide range of Cameo lights and a MAILA® array system from LD Systems.

Cameo Light Installation at Lent Festival 2024 with ZENIT W600 Wash Light OTOS W3 Wash Moving Head EVOS W7 Wash Moving Head

Main Stage

The Main Stage on Leona Štuklja Square is the centrepiece of the Lent Festival. Top stars of the Slovenian and national music scene played here, including Magnifico, Perpetuum Jazzile, and many more. For the lighting design of the Main Stage (lighting designer: Matevz Giganovič), those responsible – supported by Cameo account manager Ziga Krajnc – relied on an almost identical set-up to the previous year: OPUS® X Profile, OPUS® H5 IP65 beam-spot-wash hybrid moving head, EVOS® W7 LED wash moving head and the ZENIT® W600 outdoor LED wash light. New to the rig were the PIXBAR® SMD IP G2 IP65 SMD LED bars, which were used in a vertical arrangement as front and effect lights and for pixel effects. For David Cvelbar, lighting designer at Magnifico, the new PIXBARs are the secret star of the lighting rig: “The PIXBAR® SMD IP G2 really impressed me with its versatility: great colours, seamless chases, and extremely powerful.”

Večer Stage

Smaller festival stages – as are often used at urban festivals – have to manage a special balancing act: maximum flexibility with little equipment and weight. “Artists from different genres play on the Večer Stage – from rock to pop to electronic music,” explains Urban Kolarič, lighting designer for the Večer Stage. “The stage and lighting design therefore had to suit all styles.” Here too, the PIXBAR® series was able to prove its versatility: Kolarič arranged the Cameo PIXBAR® 600 PRO RGBWA+UV LED bars as a central design element in the stage backdrop in four squares and used them for pixel and chase effects as well as blinders. As an eye-candy effect, further PIXBAR® 600 PROs are used in a vertical arrangement on the front round arch truss. Kolarič lined up four EVOS® W7 LED wash lights next to each other in the centre of the back truss to illuminate the stage and artists in colour, supplemented by the AURO® SPOT Z300 LED spot moving heads for gobo projections and mid-air effects.

LD Systems MAILA®

For the sound reinforcement of the Večer Stage, the team relied on a combination of suspended MAILA® XXL as the main PA and MAILA® M ground stack sets for the out-fills and delay lines. “MAILA® really surprised me,” explains Marko Jakopanec. “I would never have thought that such big sound could come out of such a compact system.” For Marko Jakopanec, the quick and uncomplicated set-up plays a decisive role at a festival: “MAILA® is extremely easy to configure and sounds fantastic even without major adjustments. The vocals are clear and present, and that with all types of music here on the Večer Stage.” In the bass range, the audio team utilised the MAILA® subwoofers’ cardioid function to reduce rearward sound propagation in view of the nearby stone walls behind the stage.

“MAILA® really surprised me. I would never have thought that such big sound could come out of such a compact system.”
Marko Jakopanec, sound engineer Večer stage

Stara Trta Stage

“I love the Lent Festival. It’s like a family reunion,” says a delighted Alen Bulf. As a new member of the Stara Trta Stage this year, the lighting designer welcomed the AZOR® S2 spot moving head as the central spotlight: “The AZOR® S2s are compact, have an excellent, wide, and even zoom, and work on both small and large stages. My absolute highlight, however, are the gobos.”