This year’s Rocking the Daisies – which coincided with the festival’s tenth birthday –
was the biggest and best year yet! It was the fifth time that Kilowatt AV saw
involvement in the festival, this year being commissioned to conceptualise, design
and fully execute four of the eight stages (where they incorporated Avolites Ai
technology and Robe fixtures) as well as multiple activation areas.

Rocking the Daisies was held at the start of October at the Cloof Wine Estate in
Darling, under an hour’s drive from Cape Town, and included a line-up of
international and local musical acts, camping, relaxing and good food. In fact the
owners never suspected that what started off, as a small festival on their tranquil
grounds, would turn into one of the most popular annual music occasions on the
South African calendar.

“We were commissioned by Seed Experiences to provide a technical solution for the
Lemon Tree Theatre, the Campsite Stage, the ever popular Beach Bar and of course
the infamous Electronic Stage,’ said Neil Zaayman, director of Kilowatt AV. ” We
love working with the team at Seed. They trust us with their vision by giving us full
control over concept and design of the Electronic Stage’ the companies “baby’ at the
festival, so to speak.

This year Kilowatt installed over a hundred panels of high res LED as a backdrop
onto the stage as well as 80 panels of LED above the crowd at the Electronic Stage,
a dome shaped structure.

The lighting was electric, including over 130 fixtures at the Electronic Stage alone.
Lighting design was done by Willie Botha and Matthew Meyer. Control was on an
Avolites Pearl Expert with an Akai MPD26 Midi controller as a trigger pad.

“Robe has definitely taken preference in my lighting specs and we didn’t have a
single failure or problem during the three day festival,’ said Neil. “It was the first
time I’ve used the Robe BMFL Blades on an event and I was impressed by the speed
considering it’s such a large fixture.’

The lighting included 12 Robe BMFL Blades, 24 Robe DL4S Profiles, six Clay Paky
Sharpy Beam Lights, 22 Robe Robin Pointes, 24 Robe Robin 100 LEDBeams, 12 Robe
Robin 600 LEDWashes, 24 Robe LED4CE 18 RGBW 5W’s, 12 Phillips Nitro 510 Strobe
Lights, 36 LedForce 7s, a LeMaitre MVS Hazer and two Martin Magnum 1800 Smoke
Machines at the Electronic Stage.

At the Beach Bar, the lighting included an Avolites Tiger Touch II, six Robe Robin
600 LEDWashes, six Robe Mini Pointes and six Robe LEDBeam 100s.

“Our secret is having the passion to create remarkable events,’ said Neil. “To
create remarkable events you need to focus on every detail; that creates
talkability, which in turn boosts our clients’ ROI.’

Working on Rocking the Daisies gives the Kilowatt AV staff the chance to really get
creative and to refine their skills. Younger technicians also gain experience working
on bigger events. “It’s not always easy running a production of this magnitude out
on a farm but when it all comes together there’s no place we’d rather be,’ ended
Neil.