Beer, food, folk music and a wide variety of other forms of entertainment are a perfect recipe for a good time. The Licher Wiesnfest Beer Festival has been following this formula successfully since 2009. While Munich’s Oktoberfest is Germany’s most internationally famous beer festival export, this summer event, which takes place near Frankfurt am Main, has been gaining traction since its inception, thanks to its delicious drafted beer and varied entertainment programme.

Wanting to give Licher Wiesnfest’s main stage a visual look worthy of a much larger festival main stage, local production specialists Flashlight Veranstaltungstechnik supplied lighting operator Björn Göbel and lighting technician and LD Benjamin Graff with 14 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures, which they skilfully deployed to create some impressive looks.

By positioning eight Intimidator units from above stage trussing and a further eight units at the base of the stage, Göbel and Graff were able to exploit the wash, beam and spot effects of the Intimidator fixtures to successfully engender a great sense of engagement between the acts on stage and the beer-drinking festival-goers.

The top tier of Intimidators was used primarily to wash the stage with an evenly distributed canvas of saturated colour with occasional bursts of spot lighting during solo performances. Göbel and Graff used the bottom tier units to project vivid throws of light onto the stage and into the audience, taking advantage of the Intimidator 140SR’s powerful 140W beam.

“Considering their compact size, we were thoroughly impressed by the brightness of the Intimidators,” commented Graff. “With 14 fixtures in total, we were able to create a pretty intense visual spectacle.”

Göbel and Graff drew on the Intimidator’s many effect features to support the wide range of acts, including the official Oktoberfest band, SIMMISAMMA, and hit solo artist Beatrice Egli, who performed on stage during the ten-day festival. For example, thanks to the built-in gobo and prism effects, a wide range of dynamic visual effects were introduced to reflect the mood of different artists and acts.

“The Intimidator fixtures presented us with an excellent price-performance ratio,” concluded Graff. “We were glad to have such a versatile tool within our lighting rig.”

Although the Licher Wiesnfest might not have achieved the scale of Oktoberfest just yet, thanks to Göbel and Graff’s strategic incorporation of the Chauvet DJ fixtures, its reputation as one of Germany’s most vibrant beer festivals is gradually increasing – one Stein at a time!