Splashy Fen is South Africa’s longest running and oldest music festival. Held against the beautiful backdrop of the southern Drakensberg in Underberg, KZN, it is billed as SA’s friendliest music festival. This year, living up to its name, it also turned out to be one of the wettest, but that didn’t deter festival-goers from having the time of their lives. Held across the four-day Easter weekend and offering a lineup of exclusively South African artists across four stages different stages, Splashy Fen is a family event that offers something for everyone.
Durban-based production company and d&b audiotechnik partner, Sounds Ideal Productions, were called in to supply the sound, lighting, staging and LED requirements for the Main Stage and River Stage. For the Main Stage, Sounds Ideal supplied L/R arrays of 6 x V8s and 2 x V12s per side supplemented by 12 x J-SUBs, all powered by D80 amplifiers. A slightly smaller system of 2 x V8s and 2 x V12s per side plus 8 x V-SUBS powered by D12 and D80 amplifiers served the River Stage. Stage Plus OV40 trussing, Stage Plus stage decks and Stage Plus power distribution boxes were used throughout.
However, whilst the systems may have been straightforward, the implementation turned out to be a different story: “KZN experienced massive flooding the week before and the grounds were completely waterlogged,” recalls Sounds Ideal’s Nadeem Moosa. “We ended up having to rent smaller vehicles for our load-in as we were literally getting stuck in the mud! It was raining for most of the event so moisture was a problem, but our d&b amps performed impeccably throughout. In fact, all the bands were truly impressed with the sound quality of the PA. We pushed it to 112dB for Mango Groove on the main stage with zero gain reduction and there was still plenty of headroom. Working with d&b audiotechnik just guarantees high quality, consistent performance every time. We love it!”
Photos Courtesy of Splashy Fen
