Festivals
BottleRock Napa Valley Festival
Context
The Team
Design Consultant
L-Acoustics Services
L-Acoustics Caps Off BottleRock’s Main Stage
Bottlerock Napa is a phrase synonymous with the beautiful vineyards of the California wine country. Celebrated for its picturesque views, fantastic cuisine, and spectacular wine offerings, Napa is home to Napa Valley Expo’s annual BottleRock music festival, which marked its seventh anniversary in 2019. In addition to its eclectic lineup of more than 80 top artists performing on five stages, it was affectionately called the “the fancy Coachella” by Bruno Mars during his headlining set; an appropriate nod to the festival’s upscale amenities such as many food and beverage choices, celebrity chef demos, on-site spa, and other Bottlerock VIP facilities.
The Challenge
Like most multi-stage music festivals, noise reduction to nearby properties, other stages, and backstage hospitality was an obstacle. Over the previous years, inconsistent results for the main stage drove the desire to make a significant change. BottleRock festival promoter, C3 Presents, were facing difficulties providing coverage and meeting intelligibility requirements for this fancy Coachella’s extended Bottlerock VIP areas.
The Solution
Using Soundvision to model the main stage and the “problem areas,” Delicate Productions worked with L-Acoustics to develop optimal coverage. The main JaM Cellars Stage was outfitted with left and right arrays comprised of K1 and K2, with SB28 subs ground-stacked below, and two delay towers positioned out in the audience area. Utilizing the full range of L-Acoustics short, medium, and long-throw products, Delicate was able to elevate the sonic experience in all the areas of the event: VIP rest area, the Platinum entrance; Aflac activation section, press room, and in the Platinum Lounge (a backstage Bottlerock VIP compound). Soundvision continued to provide invaluable insights when last-minute changes were needed on-site, after heavy rains leading up to the festival created the need for structural modifications. Elements of the deployment had to be reconfigured on location with Soundvision making it possible for the team to test solutions on-the-fly.
System pictures
The Result
This was the first time, Delicate deployed L-Acoustics on the main stage, and “it was a complete success,” according to Delicate Productions President, Jason Alt. Although the main stage audience area is 700 feet deep from the main hang to the back-fence line, and 500 feet wide, Alt notes that the L-Acoustics sound system delivered beautifully blanketed coverage across the venue space. C3 commented on how much better the coverage was and how few noise complaints they received from the neighbors, despite the right side of the main stage being less than 300 feet from the surrounding neighborhood.
Project photos
There are three things that I love about L-Acoustics for BottleRock: the global acceptance of K1/K2 by the artists, how fast the system goes up, and how Soundvision rapidly and accurately guides us to accommodate last-minute changes to the design when needed. Add to that the excellent service and support from the manufacturer, and we couldn’t be happier. We are truly proud to be part of the L-Acoustics family!
Jason Alt
President, Delicate Productions
Tech Brief
- The main JaM Cellars Stage featured left and right arrays each comprised of a dozen K1 topping four K2 downfills per side
- The main arrays were flanked by outfill hangs of eight K2 each
- 32 SB28 subs were ground-stacked below, in an end-fire configuration, while two delay towers containing eight K2 each were positioned out in the audience area
- Frontfill was delivered by 12 Kiva II spread out across the stage lip, while three ARCS II on the far left and right sides of the stage provided outfill
- Stage sidefill was accomplished by left and right stacks of three more ARCS II positioned over two SB28
- LA8-equipped LA-RAK units powered the entire system, except for the subs, which were driven by LA-RAK II loaded with LA12X amplified controllers
- The VIP rest area had four short-throw X12 to cover the tented space of the VIP rest
- X8 was used at the Platinum entrance, Aflac activation, and in the pressroom
- Pairs of Syva enclosures were deployed in the Platinum Lounge
