For nearly 20 years, Circus Flic Flac has been synonymous with artistic, highly unusual entertainment and thrilling live shows. However, last year, Flic Flac ceased touring in order to concentrate on single shows and special events — such as the Christmas circus in Nuremberg.
Between the beginning of last December and the end of January, the striking circus Big Top, coloured in yellow and black was raised for more than 60 shows, with over 1,400 people attending each day.
“We needed highly reliable fixtures,” said Jens Berthold, CEO of Germany’s J&S Music. “Due to arctic temperatures, far below zero at night and around 25°C during the shows, condensation was only one of the challenges we needed to face. Furthermore, dust, heavy use of fog machines and constantly changing temperatures and humidity created a highly demanding environment — not only for the fixtures, but for all the equipment used inside and around the tent.”
The new GLP Spot One brought with it an important advantage. “The whole LED and effect engine inside the Spot One is completely sealed and thus resistant to such influences,” he noted. “In fact, we had not one single failure due to moisture, dirt or low temperature during the two months.”
A total of 16 Spot Ones were used by LD Dennis Dellweg, alongside additional fixtures including 16 further GLP impression 90, 12 GLP YPOC 700 CYM and 18 Ehrgeiz Fusion LED sticks. Furthermore, J&S relied on GLP´s MDP1012 dimmers for conventional lighting (comprising various PAR64 and PAR56 fixtures).
Dellweg was impressed not only with the reliability, but the creativity offered by these fixtures. “When it comes to GLP’s Spot one, there are really no restrictions,” he said. “Brilliant colours, sharp and focused projections and the high output beam really stand out.”
“For a show like Flic Flac, there are no fixed plans or schedules, it´s much more a steadily growing, organic piece of art,” he continued. “There is no set choreography — we start with an idea and begin developing this during rehearsals — that´s how we realise the lighting design. Sometimes, the artists come up with ideas or certain pictures they want us to integrate in our lighting design. Sometimes, it´s much more laissez-faire and the artists let us do whatever we think best to complement their show. That is a very open minded process and highly creative way of generating the appropriate lighting design.”
