EBBW VALE, South Wales – Steelhouse Festival, a Welsh classic rock event commissioned event specialist company 11th Hour to provide power solutions for the 2017 festival.
More details from 11th Hour (www.11th-hour.com):
The Steelhouse Festival near Ebbw Vale, South Wales celebrated its seventh anniversary in some style in July this year with headliners Skindred and Saxon earning rave reviews – in fact all the bands who played over the two days of the event went down a storm…and a storm made certain that conditions underfoot were a little on the boggy side. In fact, ‘near Ebbw Vale’ is something of a misnomer since the festival site sits atop a hill at the remote Hafod-y-Dafal farm and is accessed by a rough (in places) single track lane. Steelhouse is without doubt one of the UK’s most successful underdog stories of recent times. What began as almost a DIY event has quickly become, without losing any of its passion or brilliant hospitality, a self-styled Welsh International Classic Rock Festival, attracting 60% of its audience of more than 5000, from outside Wales. At this year’s renewal, Cardiff-based events specialists 11th Hour, who had previously worked at Steelhouse in a limited capacity, saw their responsibilities expanded and enjoyed a highly productive if rather damp week.
Max Rhead, promoter and co-organiser of Steelhouse Festival takes up the story:
“We teamed up with 11th hour to provide the power solutions for the Steelhouse Festival back in 2016. We were incredibly impressed with their knowledge and professionalism as well as the quality of the equipment that they supplied. So, when the requirement for a new stage and lighting supplier presented itself for 2017, we immediately contacted director Andy Hopkins and the boys to expand this partnership and supply many more of the technical elements of the festival. As well as supplying all the elements that we required for Stage, lighting and power they were able to advise us on alternative configurations and time/cost saving solutions that proved to be a great help to the smooth running of the event”
The complete build took five days with five crew on site daily. Mains power and distributionwas supplied for the whole site, covering main stage and production (4 x 100kVA sync), catering (40kVA), bars and toilets (2 x 100 kVA sync) and tour-buses (40kVA). Two of the company’s newly acquired 100kVA Bruno generators made their debut at Steelhouse. 11th Hour also installed a 12m x 10m stage under a CLT structure, adapted with 3m x 3m and 6m x 4m cowsheds for production and load-in, respectively. The stage included a built-onthrust and rolling Litedeck risers. A FOH structure, all stage-lighting (by Chauvet, Auroraand Martin) and site lighting completed the picture. Veteran headliners Saxon closed the event on Sunday night accompanied onstage by their legendary Flying Eagle prop. To enable the safe suspension of this 800kg addition, 11th Hour sourced Super Truss from Fine Line Lighting of Bristol to create an independent ‘goal-post’ structure to support its weight.
Conditions at the site deteriorated rapidly during the build and the performances, creating very demanding conditions for the 11th Hour team. Hafod y Dafal sits at over 1000 feet above sea level (officially the highest music festival in Britain) in an exposed position. Persistent rain resulted in crew members working shin-deep in mud to maintain the smooth running of the show. 11th Hour ensured that in spite of the added pressure brought on by the elements, the show’s production team was able to manage events punctually and with maximum rock and roll impact.
Three articulated lorries had delivered all 11th Hour’s kit to the site (itself a logisticaltriumph given the nature of the mountain approach) and left their trailers behind in order to ease and speed up its removal. The returning tractor units had to negotiate dire conditions to exit the site but consistent with the 11th Hour mantra that nothing is impossible, the team succeeded in extricating everything safely without drama.
1th Hour Business Development Manager, Jason Venables, reflects on overcoming some trying circumstances:
“Steelhouse is a brilliant event with a real community vibe. The conditions at times were pretty challenging but everyone on site, including Steelhouse’s excellent volunteer workforce, worked very hard together to make sure that the whole thing went off without a hitch. We prepared very carefully and so were able to adapt to anything that was thrown at us -including the rain – and in the hands of a dedicated team, the gear we installed worked efficiently to ensure a safe and enjoyable time was had by all.”
Max Rhead sums up:
“As a family friendly festival, we nurture a close ‘team spirit’ throughout the site and for the duration of the build (and beyond). The staff and technicians from 11th Hour have most certainly become valuable additions to the team, and are very welcome additions to the Steelhouse ‘family’. It’s important to us that we have a smooth (relatively) stress freeworking environment at the festival. We know that this atmosphere is transmitted to the audience at the Festival, and is part of what makes the event so successful. We thereforeselect our suppliers very carefully to protect this valuable asset. 11th Hour have fitted in perfectly with our team, and we’re looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”
