Top international electronic dance music acts, along with 65,000 ravers, again transformed the former Pydna missile base in the Hunsrück area of Germany into one of the hotspots of the European EDM scene recently. GERDON DESIGN has been providing the NATURE ONE festival with sensational creative designs for over 10 years – and this year was no exception, with designer Marek Papke’s team again responsible for the event’s open-air floor.
Numerous pyramids, which formed part of the set construction, and the unbridled light output from 64 GLP KNV Cubes played a key role in maintaining all-round consistency for this largest open-air floor of the festival.
“As a design element, the pyramid already existed at NATURE ONE in 2019,” notes Papke. “The pyramids, which were originally made as a special construction, were still available and everyone involved wanted not only to use them again but to develop this theme on a much larger scale. The result was a production design that was extremely coherent in its language and did justice to the technical and industrial look
There were 16 smaller pyramids at both stage left and right, with four much larger pyramids on the stage itself, while a huge inverted pyramid hovered over the dance floor, containing a strobe pod (others contained a total of nine KNV Cubes). When viewed collectively, all pyramids revealed a consistent line, with the tips each equipped with a KNV Cube. While the smaller pyramids contained only one KNV Cube, the larger ones were each topped by a matrix of 3 x 3 Cubes – and thus had enormous blinding potential.
The smaller pyramids were constructed in such a way that a KNV Cube would fit exactly into the top. “The KNV Cube is simply a spotlight that is still unparalleled in terms of brightness – as both a blinder and strobe effect,” says the designer. “When we fired up all the KNV units, it was as if the sun rose over the missile base in the middle of the night. Indescribable! The devices also have a very compact form factor; they are actually only as big as the pixels they contain. This means they fit wonderfully into such a decorative building.”
With its immense light output of 50,000 lumens and the combination of 25 individual white light power pixels, plus a surrounding RGB pixel ring, the KNV Cube is ideal for flat washes, as well as powerful strobe and creative pixel effects.
“We primarily used the devices as wash lights to bathe the entire floor in light. Single pixel control with programmed effects from the light console and pixel mappings from the media server were also used,” continues Papke. “As a strobe, the KNV Cube is simply incomparable. The four 3 x 3 matrices in particular blew us and the audience away in equal measure. A fantastic strobe and blinder effect.”
Since all devices in the KNV series are IP65-certified, the on-site team didn’t have to worry about the weather, he adds: “The weather was extremely bad during installation and surprisingly good from the start of the show. In this unpredictable weather year, and with some festivals literally sinking into the mud, it was extremely nice that the sun came out during NATURE ONE.”
schoko pro GmbH was the technical service provider for NATURE ONE, while Motion Rental supplied the KNV Cubes.
Marek Papke from GERDON DESIGN GmbH designed the stage design (lighting and media areas) and acted as show director. Lighting operators Leon Schwerdt and Kai Müller, as well as visual operators Max Schmalenberger and Artur Kechter, supported the production on site. The laser technology came from Laserfabrik GmbH. FOG GmbH was responsible for the special effects.
Photo credit: Julian Huke
