Latvia by Helena Caixeta, Toms Locmelis
Ezera Skanas is a musical performance that starts at 4:00 AM in the middle of a distant lake in Latvia. People enter the dark water in boats and follow the first sounds that emerge from the floating village. The music fills the morning landscape and climaxes at sunrise.
The festival celebrates the beginning of a new day. It explores ideas of dreams and reality, approaching the dark lake as a sleeping mind that gradually wakes up. It is a unique tradition that started in 2012.
The stage design was designed by Jonathan Roditi and Zane Priede, who first met at the Design Academy Eindhoven and have since collaborated on numerous editions of the Ezera Skana festival. This year’s design upholds the tradition of creating a floating village, with the stage segmented into three distinct areas for artists to perform. The festival’s concept revolves around establishing a week-long summer camp, where the entire festival infrastructure is constructed on-site.
The lighting project, developed by designers Helena Caixeta and Toms Locmelis, was designed to gradually reveal different parts of the stage during each concert. Beginning in the pre-dawn darkness, lighting control is more manageable, and as the sun rises, the sky’s colors seamlessly merge with the stage lighting.
All the lighting equipment used was provided by Astera LED. Linears were mounted to the orthogonal structure, spotlights were placed on the roof trusses, and light bulbs adorned the flag towers. The scenes were controlled wirelessly from a boat using CRMX technology via Asterabox and the Asteraapp, ensuring both security and ease of programming without the need for cabling.
pictures by Katrina Kizenbaha and Filips Smits
