Rebellion Festival brought tens of thousands of punk fans together at Blackpool's historic Winter Gardens for four days, with more than 300 live performances across six stages.
For this year's edition, several Martin Audio Wavefront Precision line array systems provided the necessary power and dynamics across multiple venues, including the magnificent main Ballroom, the Olympia Room — renamed Club Casbah for the festival — and the Conference Room.
The festival's sound systems were supplied by Liverpool-based dBS Solutions.
In the main Ballroom, we deployed an all-Martin Audio system based around large-format WPL arrays. Club Casbah featured a WPC system, while in the Conference Room we worked with the Winter Gardens team to manage and supplement their permanently installed WPS system, explains James Roberts of dBS Solutions.
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Power and acoustic control in the Ballroom
The complete Ballroom setup comprised 10 Martin Audio WPL line array elements per side, supplemented by 12 Martin Audio SXH218 subwoofers deployed in a cardioid castle wall configuration.
To ensure coverage of the front rows, eight Martin Audio WPS sub-compact line array elements were installed in four pairs of two, while two Martin Audio FlexPoint FP12 cabinets provided outfill coverage.
Martin Audio was also deployed on stage, with XE500 floor monitors and, on each side, a TORUS constant curvature array ground-stacked on two SXC118 subwoofers to provide side-fill monitoring.
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The Ballroom is a huge space. It's stunning, but it has a lot of reflective surfaces. We were able to use Martin Audio's Hard Avoid® feature via the iKON amplifiers, targeting the enormous curved ceiling to help reduce the room's natural reverberation. That helped immensely. The castle wall subwoofer configuration also worked very well, providing substantial rejection back onto the stage, notes Roberts.
Wavefront Precision coverage in Club Casbah and the Conference Room
In Club Casbah, the system comprised 10 Martin Audio WPC elements per side, accompanied by eight SXH218 subwoofers in a cardioid configuration. Six Martin Audio XE300 floor monitors provided stage monitoring.
Finally, in the Conference Room, the Winter Gardens' permanently installed system of 12 WPS sub-compact line array elements per side was supplemented by Martin Audio FlexPoint FP12 cabinets supplied by dBS Solutions for use as stage monitors.
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Fast deployment and consistent sound for a fast-paced festival
This festival is a very fast-paced environment. We have more than 120 bands across our stages during the four days of the event. The Martin Audio systems have performed brilliantly: they're quick and easy to deploy. We have a technical crew that knows these systems inside out, which helps us achieve the sound quality and consistency we need across the rooms, adds Roberts.
The final assessment comes from front-of-house (FOH) engineer Arran Azz Culpan, who has mixed the Ballroom stage at Rebellion Festival for many years.
"It's a fantastic gig", he concludes. "Rebellion is like a big family, and the whole punk scene is amazing. I know this room very well, and this was my first time running Martin Audio WPL in here. It sounded great, and we had headroom for days!"
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Image credits: © Chloe Lloyd/dBS Solutions
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