Well over 220 Shure wired and wireless microphones, including the Shure SM58 and
SM57 as well as ULX-D wireless microphone systems, were amongst the live gear
making the dream of over a thousand volunteer musicians a reality on July 24th,
2016 in Cesena, Italy.

In May 2015, a small band of fans of the US rock group the Foo Fighters from
Cesena, in the central Italian state of Romagna, decided that they were fed up with
travelling long distances to see their favourite band every time they toured. The Foo
Fighters hadn’t played in Romagna since 1997, and had no plans to return. Led by
Fabio Zaffagnini, the friends decided to stage a live performance of the Foo Fighters
song ‘Learn To Fly’. The plan was to have 1000 musicians playing simultaneously,
film the performance, and send the video to the band in a bid to convince them to
add Cesena to their next tour. The project succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest
dreams: the video of the performance, which was entirely crowdfunded and carried
out by volunteers, received over 30 million views on YouTube and went viral. Within
days, Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters’ lead singer, had responded on-line, and in
November 2015, the Foo Fighters opened their next European tour in Cesena’s
Carisport stadium. The 1000 musicians who participated in the original Rockin’1000
video were allowed in for free.

Inspired by this success, Fabio Zaffagnini decided to repeat the experience and build
on it, organising Rockin’1000 — That’s Live, an entire concert of rock music played
by another mega-group of over 1000 volunteer musicians. Again, what began as a
crazy concept became a huge success, with over 1200 musicians performing on July
24th at Cesena’s Dino Manuzzi Stadium to a crowd of over 14,000 onlookers.

The concert featured 250 drummers, 250 guitarists, 250 bassists, 30 keyboard
players, 30 violinists and even 30 bagpipe players, all playing a selection of hits by
David Bowie, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, the Beatles, the Clash, the White
Stripes, and Led Zeppelin, forming what may have been the biggest rock band of all
time.

Microphones and amplification for this ground-breaking concert were supplied by
Italian technical services company Roadie Music Service, supported by Shure’s
Italian distributor Prase Media Technologies.

Following weeks of technical preparation and planning, Shure microphones were
used throughout the event, by all of the musicians, the conductor Maestreo Sabiu,
the leaders of the individual groups of the musicians, and the technical support
staff. Over 170 wired mics were deployed, including Shure SM58, SM57, Beta 52,
SM81 and Beta 98 A/C, but because many of the musicians were mobile during the
concert, wireless microphones were also used, including 56 channels of Shure ULX-
D digital wireless system. The Shure AXT600 Axient spectrum manager was used to
analyse and monitor the wireless frequencies being used in the stadium during the
concert.

Following the runaway success of Rockin’1000 — That’s Live, rumours are swirling
that Fabio Zaffagnini and the Rockin’1000 team are already planning future
volunteer-based events on a similarly grand scale. More information will no doubt
be made available at www.rockin1000.com in good time.