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.

Entech

On top of everything else that filled this busy week, I got a chance to program and put together the ALIA (Australasian Lighting Industry Association) stand at Sydney's Entech Exhibiton. With gear loaned from Jands, Show Technology, Cairellie, Lots of Watts, LSW, Resolution X, Sylvannia Lighting and of course, Mandylights, an impressive stand was built around my wanting to make a wall of VL5s on a ridiculously small stand. Turns out it created a bit of a talking point, and hey, I had fun :P I think this was taken when I programmed my 220th cue for the stand...

9 Lives

Dateline.....Sunday, 10 February 2008 Location......Wuhan, China. How many people who read this go there or even know where Wuhan is. I did not until recently. The reason for the trip here is the on-going prowling around ASIA that CATS is doing. MANDYLIGHTS continues to provide lighting direction and operation services to this touring production which keeps on gaining lives. We are half way through a China tour , and the tour has just been extended again with the confirmation of another return to Korea finishing around October. I think this is about the sixth CATS tour of Korea. Who said cats only had 9 lives. To keep up with the workload we have welcomed on board Sian. She is looking after CATS for the next while. (Maybe forever if CATS keeps extending !!!!) CATS Team Lighting on the set in Wuhan. Ryan Sturgeon(Head Systems), Greg Yates(LX Director), Largent Wilson(Systems), Wing Tsou (Head Spot OP), Sian James Holland(LX op), Hsiu Hui Yang(Spot OP) I am heading back to Sydney and hit the ground Monday morning and head straight into lighting conferences for a major corporation. The next few weeks keep us all busy with corporate events all over the place for a whos-who of companies. Thankfully some of them are on beaches or the Gold Coast so we can have some fun in the sun. Recently I have had fun walking thru Beijing and Wuhan snow. It will be different back on OZ. Bye Bye for now. Greg Yates Hong Kong Airport

Busy again

Hey all, Sitting in Woollongong at the end of a weekend lighting and running visuals for a corporate event. Also sitting at the start of a flat out time for the team. We'll be at Entech in the next few days (check out my overkilled ALIA stand design) and on jobs all over the place, from ballrooms to theatres to old abondoned prison blocks. Greg comes back after a two month long stint on Cats which is still making its way through China. We're really excited to have Sian on board who will remain with the show for the next little while. I've found myself wanting a holiday, but with gigs coming up on the Gold Coast, in Port Douglas and even on a Sydney beach, I think I'm going to get myself more than enough sun at work in the next couple of months. Mardi Gras is coming up in a few weeks too - it's going to look great. The designs are almost done... stay tuned to see how it goes. I'm accepting donations of Red Bull and Starburst snakes for the 'keep richard awake for 24hrs' fund. It's a very worthy cause! cheers rich

Mandy 08

We've taken time in January to strap ourselves in for a big big year. With more large scale projects on the horizon than ever before there is a really cool excitement around the Mandy office. Personally I am looking forward to some theatre and retail projects while the rest of the crew are working on some exciting things also. More blogs on their way.

2008 begins...

... with a bang! Field Day was huge, bright and colourful and the following weeks which were supposed to be spent taking it easy quickly turned into a hugely busy month. With the crew already flying to China and Tonga in addition to the Gold Coast and a few other places locally, 2008 is shaping up to be a huge year for us. We've got a bunch of large scale theatrical projects developing, not to mention some great jobs in Sydney, around Australia and around the world. We welcome Sian James - Holland to our crew as she begins working for us in China, and look forward to working with more people from all parts of the industry in the next year. For now, we're heading off to light up Australia Day in the Shire in Sydney before focusing our attention on jobs including the 2008 Mardi Gras party and a host of other projects.

That non-existent Christmas break!

Just when we thought we were going to have a relaxing few weeks over Christmas, we got busy again! Dan and I lit an amazing event on Sydney Harbour with Hannafords events which featured performers on boats and islands all over the place, and then got a bit swamped with paperwork and preparations for a series of new and exciting projects for the new year. At the moment we have Andi working with us, a German intern who is finishing studying his lighting degree. Apart from all the German beer he brought with him, he's great to work with and we've had some great opportunities to show him the Aussie industry as well as the touristy bits and pieces. 2008 is already shaping up to be a huge year with jobs all over the world already being booked in. It's going to be an exciting one as we light and technically direct events both within in and outside Australia. Special thanks have to go recently to Martin Philips and Eric Belanger who took the time to show me some behind the scenes action at Daft Punk last week, and Paul Marin who took me around the new look Home nightclub in Sydney last night while DJ Ferry Corsten blew the crowd away. To all our followers, clients, staff and friends, have a great, prosperous and safe new year and we look forward to working with everyone again soon! cheers rich