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Every year, the largest arts festival in the world takes over Edinburgh in August, and this time, ETC Ltd made the trip to Scotland to be on hand for all technical service queries. Our friendly field service engineers, Chris and Dan, were onsite throughout the busy month offering training and support to customers across the festival.
With over 1,000 shows a day, the city hosts a variety of extravagant events – from musicals to cabaret to comedy – and ETC’s consoles and fixtures feature in many of the venues. Mark White, Regional Manager at ETC Ltd, estimates that there were almost 200 consoles alone at the shows in Edinburgh this year!
The team visited several key venues at the festival including Paradise Green, Assembly, Gilded Balloon and many more to train new technicians on the ways of our consoles and offer support for any queries. The set-up of the events require lots of staff who are not all technically experienced, therefore, it was crucial for ETC to be on hand to guide and help them deliver a great show. Feedback has been positive across the festival, with many pointing out the quick response turnaround time ETC provided when any issues arose (and also a particular fondness of our teddy, Eddy.) 
ETC dealer Black Light also held events at the Leith Theatre with High End Systems fixtures and consoles for Light on the Shore with Edinburgh Gin Seaside. Black Light provided 78 High End fixtures, 6 ETC Source Four LED Series 2’s and 4 consoles (Hog 4, Road Hog, Hedgehog, and Gio @5). Dan, who was based in the Leith Theatre overseeing the High End Systems rig, commented on how Black Light and Edinburgh International Festival did a fantastic job with the set-up over the course of the month. “The fixtures illuminated the authentic theatre with stunning effects and we were able to modify them in different ways to suit each performance,” stated Dan.
Chris also commented on his experience in Edinburgh, stating: “It was great to be back up in Edinburgh, I have worked on the festivals for many years in various roles and this year was one of the most rewarding. I was the roaming technician covering the festivals and it was amazing to be able to experience the wider festival, dropping in on venues for catch ups and training. Our ColorSource desk is certainly a big hit with smaller venues looking to use LED fixtures with ease.”
A noticeable trend across the festival in Edinburgh appears to be the rise in popularity of LED. One of the venues in particular, TheSpaceUK, are looking at making the transformation to all LED lighting across the venue and we expect many others to join this race to go ‘all green’ in future years.
Overall, the festival has had a vibrant and exciting atmosphere, with a friendly welcome and interest from all parties to ETC being present. Watch this space for next year.
