New Orleans, LA (June 3, 2020)—Marking one of the last festivals to take place in the U.S. before the pandemic took hold, The Ahava Festival in New Orleans’ Woldenberg Riverfront Park held its first edition, bringing together thousands to enjoy performances and donate money to 10 local charities in lieu of an admission fee (it worked—more than $100,000 was raised). Multiple regional production companies were involved in the event, coordinated by technical director Matt Dupuy, system designer and installation technician at local AV integration firm Assurance AV Solutions of Mandeville, LA.
Dupuy worked with Danley Sound Labs, which supported the Ahava Festival with over 4,200 pounds of loudspeakers, subwoofers and multi-channel amplifiers for all of the event’s three stages. “The whole concept behind the Ahava Festival is based on sharing love and giving to the people in New Orleans who are in need,” explained Dupuy, who also handles FOH engineering for regional party band, Groovy 7. “As an integrator, Danley is always our first suggestion to clients whenever possible. And I own Danley! Groovy 7’s main system is two SM80s and two TH118s.”
60 Seconds with Jonathan ‘JP’ Parker of Danley Sound Labs
Dupuy reached out to Kim Comeaux, Danley’s western regional sales manager, to see if Danley would be willing to supply the sound system for the charity event; Comeaux was happy to oblige, noting, “The Ahava Festival provided an opportunity to exhibit different Danley solutions while supporting an important charity fundraiser.” Ivan Beaver, chief engineer at Danley Sound Labs drove down from Georgia to assist with the event and chat with local live sound engineers who used the system.
The Ahava Festival used three stages stretched across a quarter mile of the Mississippi River in Woldenberg Riverfront Park: a big, central “Seruntine” main stage, a smaller “SOTA” gazebo stage, and a smaller “420 Gospel Tent” stage. The Seruntine main stage used a flown Danley J7-95 loudspeaker per side sonically supported from below by two Danley BC415 subwoofers per side. Two smaller Danley SM80s provided front fill.
The SOTA gazebo stage used a Danley SH96HO stacked on top of two Danley TH118XL subwoofers per side powered by two Danley DNA 20k4 Pro amplifiers. Finally, the gospel stage used Dupuy’s Danley SM100s, along with two Danley TH115 subwoofers and a Danley DNA 10k4 Pro amplifier. All of the Danley DNA amplifiers used on-board DSP with model-specific presets.
“I was really blown away that Danley was so willing and eager to do this for us,” Dupuy said. “At the Ahava Festival, the Danley boxes helped us knock it out of the park. That’s saying something, because Louisiana has over 150 registered festivals. I had a bunch of people come up to me to say Ahava was the best-sounding festival they had ever been to!”
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