Life's a beach...

Watershed - Photograph: S Gill

For the sixth year "Africa's Playground", Durban, hosted the Vodacom Beach Africa ten-day beach festival in July. This event annually attracts approximately one million people to Durban's golden mile.

Mr Price once again hosted the international surfing competition, as well as providing the live entertainment to international and national visitors. Gearhouse Durban formed part of this package by providing the roofed stage, rigging, lighting, audio and audiovisual elements for the event. "This was to be the biggest stage that we had built on the beach," says Jesse Wang, Project Manager for the event. Indeed, it gave Gearhouse Durban a chance to premier the new 14 m x 10 m modular roof, which had not had a chance to shine since the Avril Lavigne concert.

Springbok Nudegirls - Photograph: S Gill

The lighting rig matched the status of the roof, with a collaborative effort between Jason Fritz and Simon Hampton. Jason and Simon set out to combine the best elements of the previous year's events into this year's lighting rig which included 60 moving lights and 120 parcans. The intensity of the lighting would have had some negative effect on the clarity of the audiovisual elements of the show, hence the decision to use the Optiscreen. The Optiscreen debuted on the beach stage and proved to be a welcome newcomer.

To support the energetic sounds of Prime Circle, Mandoza, Danny K, Watershed, Springbok Nude Girls and many, many more enthusiastic bands, Audio HOD, Gary Loader supplied the NEXO Alpha System. The system included 18 mid/high cabinets, 18 bass cabinets and eight sub-bass cabinets.

Not only was the equipment bigger and better this year, but Mr Price changed the format of the event by entertaining the crowds with three nights of live performances as opposed to the past format of a two night event. Gearhouse kept up with the new arrangement and impressed the client with a 26 m x 15 m footprint area stage and technical equipment to match.