Illuminating a military tattoo in KZN

Black Coffee, a lighting, staging, Audio Visual and Sound company, supplied the predominantly Robe lighting rig for the Kwa-Zulu Natal Military Tattoo held at the Natal Mounted Rifles Parade Grounds in Durban in July.

Based on the success of military tattoos worldwide and the popularity of the Durban Military Tattoo during the eighties, it was decided to revive the local tattoo in 2008. It is now known as the Kwa-Zulu Natal Military Tattoo and has been held annually since then.

Themi Venturas Productions and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) called on the services of Durban rental based company Black Coffee to provide the lighting and audio visual. Black Coffee’s LD and Operator, Llewellyn Pieters, worked closely with 3 Elec Regiment, the army’s sound and lighting division from Pretoria.

“The brief was to light up a castle set and to make sure the parade ground was lit beautifully too,’ said Pieters. “The lighting, all controlled on an Avolites Tiger Touch, was rigged on 5 x 5m high scaffolding towers and on the castle wall. The 24 x Robin 600s lit the field area while 24 x Robin 100s were used to light up the castle wall set. Two Robe 1200s, two Robe 2500s and 12 x ClayPaky Sharpys did the gobo work on the field.’

According to Pieters the lighting handled very well considering it was out in the open near the beach and surrounded by sea air.

“The Sharpys penetrated into the night sky during the pyro display and it looked great,’ added Pieters. “It was a fantastic gig to work on and the only real challenge was making sure that the 64 moving heads were covered each evening and uncovered again in the afternoon – it always Better to be safe than sorry.’

3 Elec supplied: