I've been everywhere man

I've spent the last few weeks flying and driving all over the place. Playground Weekender was an adventure in cars, ferries and trucks over the Hawkesbury River - very nearly involving boats after hours and hours of torrential rain. More recently, the whole team flew up to the Gold Coast for Macquarie Captial's annual conference which saw us put around 90 moving lights and a couple hundred conventionals into two rooms to create a few spectacular nights of partying, conferences and bands. Following the conference we did get a day off on the coast - after 'investigating' some lighting at various Surfers Paradise bars we headed off for an afternoon at Movie World... After flying back to Sydney on Sunday night I had to jump in the car and head off to Bathurst on Monday to light the Mercedes Benz national Dealer of the Year Awards. This was a huge event to mark the end of a week long dealer conference with some very nice cars ripping their way around Mount Panorama. The dinner and celebrations looked huge, and I had a great time working with all the crew. Here's a taste of what it looked like inside: Of course it's not getting any quieter - this week sees me flying to Port Douglas to light a unique event in the middle of the rainforest, and then after that I'll be spending a week in New Zealand before heading back to Korea as our long-running involvement with the musical Cats sees the show move back to Seoul for its second season in a year. Catch you soon.... don't know where exactly though! Cheers rich

A Weekend in the Playground

Let me start by saying that the Playground Weekender that Mandylights designed and operated over the weekend was a great festival. It definitely is one to keep an eye on for the next few years as it grows because it has a great Homebake meets Woodford Folk Festival feel about it and has secured a remote but very cool site.

Now when I say remote I mean it's around an hour and a half from Sydney which when we're talking about a 3 day festival might not sound so far away but when you add a car ferry that usually services the small population of Wisemans and decides it's all a bit too much at 3am the night of load out you end up with a substantially longer, dirtier and did i mention longer drive ahead of you. 

Despite all the perils of ferries and outdoor festivals it was a great weekend and one I will look forward to doing (from a houseboat) next year. Top work to Mike and Richard for operating the two stages and GY, Claire and the Cairellie boys for making it all happen.