The Big Dub Festival & A Pirate Ship

We made some changes to the ship this year, with an all new mast and sail, new railings, a treasure chest and even a shiny new anchor! This project is always my favorite. We build it for my dear friends over at Re;magine who curate this stage musically for Big Dub Festival. Held in the summer each year at Four Quarters Farm in Pennsylvania, and the fan favorite for music stages.

Made some new burlap flags, ripped and distressed for an authentic Pirates of the Caribbean feel. The skull is the logo from the Re:magine Pirate radio show so we could properly represent the stage. 

 The new mast is made from pvc and wood with a pully system for easy installation. The sails were made from canvas drop cloths. I gave them a bit of distressing using spray paint. Attached the rope ladder, skelly and top flag and we were done! The height reached 26ft in total.

We even had a fog machine going to the canons this year but I wasn't able to get a picture. Next year, I promise!

 We used H20 special fx lighting to create water effects which gave it a realistic ocean vibe. 

The treasure chest was filled with fake gold coins, skulls, plastic gems and starfish. We rigged a little red light inside so it glowed in the evenings.

The giant compass and tentacles were back of course. These tentacles are inflatables made from a durable pvc fabric and always a wonderful addition to the area.

Who knows what we will conjure up next year but I'm sure it will only keep growing bigger and better!

 The Big Dub sign got a little love to match the new graphics this year and of course the giant mushrooms made an appearance but I was super excited to see the giant Kikiwawa!I came up with the idea to get a custom giant inflatable of him made. He turned out amazing! This big loveable guy has been the festival mascot in all the digital fliers for many years and it was a lot of fun to see him finally come to life. Another year of awesomeness in the books. Till next year Dubbers!

Dreamscape Festival 2016

 Back once again with the ill behavior that was DREAMSCAPE FESTIVAL 2016. This year I took on more than ever before with this venue -  including my first main stage design, The City of Dreams.

This was a fairly large undertaking. I started concept for this during the winter with digital drawings that then had to sync with a laser show and lighting design. We knew we wanted a magical city, one with illuminated skyscrapers.

 I decided to build the towers out of extruded polystyrene sheets. They come in 4x8 panels that got cut in half. Each 2x8 panel had 120 individually cut squares. I attempted to cut this by hand first until i realized i was insane.

 These were then sent to a friend with a cnc machine for precision cutting.

  I then cut the tops to create the skyline design. 

 After all was cut, everything was then painted with a sprayer and about 5 gallons of flat black paint. After the paint was dry, I then adhered white spandex to the back of each panel using spray adhesive for foam. I do not have pictures of this part of the process but it was fairly straightforward. To create the window effect, I used hundreds of individually cut pieces of black felt. Some of the windows were spray painted as we were testing out different ways to create the effect. The felt was the easiest and best way to create the windows, but having a variety of different methods created a different shadow detail, giving it more depth in the end.

Once fabric was done, we then framed each vertical side with 1x2s, adhering with liquid nails for foamboard. Then pressed together for 24 hours to dry.

 Once on site, the panels were then squared together for a 3d effect using L brackets down the middle. We created a game plan the night before the truss arrived and then removed everything for the following morning truss install.

After careful measuring, truss was placed and the l.e.d. star curtain went up.

Main center light rig going up.

After programming from the lighting and laser crews, and the final cloud installation, we were ready to open doors. 

 

The Poseidon Playground stage was a side stage at the pool. I made some custom tridents and provided some giant inflatable jellies.

 The main thoroughfare this year was Wonderland Tea Party inspired. I had some custom inflatable bunnies made overseas. 

 18-feet tall, all white with led lighting. They were set with about 70 tall skinny, custom sewn red flags in the big field of the festival.

L.e.d. tunnel was back with fully programmable leds. This one will be a work in progress as we continue to upgrade this over the next year, thanks to the Crescent Rolls Source Syndicate crew.

Another successful festival with the BadAssRaves family. We had some crazy weather but it didn't stop us from working our asses off. Thanks to my amazing crew this year. Couldn't do it without you guys. Up next is Big Dub Festival for another round of epic festival shenanigans. 'Till next time.

Love, 

Rania