Milwaukee, WI (July 24, 2018)—Over 800 artists? More than 1,000 gigs? 766,000-plus fans? It’s all in a summer’s work for Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest. The festival, certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest in the world, hit all those numbers and more as it fielded acts like Halsey, James Taylor, Florida Georgia Line, Dave Matthews Band, Jason Isbell, Journey, Arcade Fire, and hundreds of others between June 27 and July 8 at Henry W. Maier Festival Park. Clearwing Productions, the longtime sound reinforcement provider for Summerfest, was on-hand at all 12 stages.
Clearwing fielded PA systems from L-Acoustics and JBL, and had a DiGiCo SD or S-Series console at each of the 12 stages for the entire 11-day run. Helping ensure every engineer was properly prepped, Group One Limited—DiGiCo’s U.S. distributor—also had an SD10 console set up in a demo tent backstage for artists and mix engineers to check out.
On the seven largest stages, the festival featured two SD5 consoles at FOH positions, two SD10 desks used for FOH and one for monitors, two SD12 consoles for FOH and four for monitors, one SD9 each for FOH and monitors, and one SD8 for monitors, while five smaller S21 provided the combined FOH/monitor mix for the smaller stages.
Clearwing additionally deployed an SD12 for Halsey’s performance at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, and an SD11 as a production desk on the Harley Davidson Roadhouse stage.
“There were also many other DiGiCo consoles at the 25,000-capacity American Family Insurance Amphitheater—the ones that the artists brought as part of their tour sound systems,” notes Jeff Schauer, Clearwing’s audio operations manager for company’s Milwaukee office. “DiGiCo has been the exclusive provider of audio consoles for Summerfest for the past four years, and has been part of the event for twice as long. Not only has the sound been awesome, but DiGiCo’s service and staff have been outstanding. When we talk to the engineers who staff the stages, they all tell us that the SD desks are a pleasure to work with.”
Summerfest • www.summerfest.com
Clearwing Productions • www.clearwing.com
DiGiCo • www.digico.biz
