Robe moving lights have been installed at the new Doornroosje (Sleeping Beauty)
venue in Nijmegen, one of the famous live music venues in The Netherlands.
Originally founded around 1968 and since 1970 operating out of a disused school
building in the south suburbs of the city, the club became a popular hippy hangout
in the 1970s, and through 40 years at the cutting edge of live music and
entertainment, legendary for showcasing ground-breaking artists on the cusp of
success and popularity … from Pink Floyd to the Gaslight Anthem. It also hosts
Holland’s longest running club night, Planet Rose.
As well as being renowned for some of the best techno sounds in the country,
Doornroosje was also well known in the day as one of the first places in the
Netherlands where marijuana was openly available.
Now housed in a brand new building right downtown, sandwiched audaciously
between central station on one side and the police constabulary on the other … and
with several floors of student accommodation above, the gleaming new purpose-
built Doornroosje opened at the end of 2014, designed specifically for life as a busy
live music and performance space.
It is resplendent with an 1100 capacity main hall and a smaller auditorium for 400
people (the same capacity as the main hall in the old venue). The funding for the
new building came from the local government, and one of the stipulations was that
they purchased new equipment.
Overseeing the lighting element of the new technical installation was Director of
Lighting Robbie van Reen, who has worked full time for the venue since 2009. He
was extremely keen to get Robe on the rigs for both rooms.
For the Main room, he specified 12 x MMX Wash Beams, 16 x MMX Spots, 14 x
LEDWash 800s and two more LEDWash 300s to bring their total to eight.
For the small room, he went the LED route, choosing 8 x DLF Washes, 14 x DLX
Spots and six LEDWash 600s.
The original six LEDWash 300s are used as a floor specials package as and when
needed in either venue.
In the smaller room he felt LED units were more appropriate, and in particular
RGBW LED fixtures. At the time of specification, only Robe could deliver RGBW
products.
Robbie is the compact Lighting department’s only full time member of the team – he
works alongside Head of Sound Gonny Maas – and they encourage regular
volunteers to work at Doornroosje allowing them to build their technical skills in the
process. Currently there are about 10 on Robbie’s crew, from which many will
continue into industry careers.
Doornroosje continues to stage gigs embracing all genres of music – from EDM to
heavy metal, death punk to country, jazz to indie pop … and everything in between,
so with such a rich mix, it was vital to have a highly flexible lighting rig and one
that would satisfy visiting LDs.
For control, there is a choice of grandMA2s, Hogs and assorted Avo consoles.
With the new venue now fully ramped up, bookings are multiplying and many more
shows than previously are being staged. Around eight per week is an average, and
more than one a day is not unusual. One of the first major international artists to
visit were the Kaisers Chiefs on their tour at the start of the year, and many more
are planned together with a lively programme of leading and emerging Dutch
performers.
