FESTIVAL FOCUS
LOLLAPALOOZA LD Systems provides audio and lighting for the two main stages on the return of the famed Chicago festival. Audio Operation Manager, Thomas Ruffner speaks to TPi about this year’s PA deployment.
Taking place in Grant Park, Chicago, after a year hiatus, Lollapalooza welcomed back around 100,000 people to witness headline sets from Foo Fighters, Tyler, The Creator, and Post Malone. Marking its eighth year with the festival, LD Systems was back providing an audio and lighting solution for the two main stages – the T-Mobile and Bud Light stages. Having handled the audio delivery at the festival’s main stages for the past three years, LD Systems’ Thomas Ruffner explained that there was a decent amount of “rinse and repeat’’ when it came to the PA configuration. “We’ve got a good game plan when it comes to the Lollapalooza weekend and know roughly how many trucks it’s going to take and how much PA we’re going to deploy. Thankfully, the festival didn’t have any major infrastructural
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changes, so our roadmap from previous years stood us in good stead.” For both stages, the system of choice was L-Acoustics. For the T-Mobile stage, the main hang on each side comprised four K1SBs over 16 K1s and four K2s, a sub hang of eight K1SBs flown behind each array with the out hang of six K1s over six K2s. The ground subs comprised 32 KS28s with front fills of 16 KARAs. There were six delay hangs in total, comprising six K1s per hang. “L-Acoustics is one of the most widely accepted PAs and the fact that the speaker system is used on so many other festivals around the world is a testament to its quality,” stated Ruffner. “The T-Mobile stage in particular needs a 1,000ft of throw with a 300ft-wide horizontal coverage area. It’s a
massive flat grassy area, but with a 24-box L-Acoustic hang on each side, you can get pretty far. It’s those aspects of the gig that really play into the decision of what PA to use and how many boxes.” L-Acoustics was also chosen for the Bud Light stage. The main hang consisted of four K1SBs over 12 K1s and four K2s per side with a sub hang of eight K1SBs flown behind the main array. The out hangs were made up of four K1s and eight K2s per side. Elsewhere on the rig were 40 SB28s, front fills of 12 KARAs with three delay hangs of eight K2s. With such a large flat venue, audio spill was always going to be somewhat of an issue although according to Ruffner, the team was more than up for the challenge. “If you’re standing on the T-Mobile stage,