This is not a story about massive line arrays or state of the art technology, or of a sea of faceless thousands dancing the night away to Top 40 radio artists in a dusty field somewhere. This is a story of obscurity, unity, of the love of music and how little one actually needs for music lovers to have a good time. This story is about Siavonga, a little known music festival set deep in the heart of Africa on the shimmering shores of mesmerising Lake Kariba in Zambia.
Our journey starts in Lusaka after a two hour flight from Johannesburg. I was commissioned by local progressive/experimental/psychedelic/jam rock outfit albinobeach to handle their mix at the show and, despite receiving a general technical list of what was available, we didn’t really know what to expect. Foolishly we hoped for a large stage with all the technology we were used to at local festivals. We could not have been more wrong but, as time was to show us, this was not a problem and turned out to be part of the festival’s allure.
But there were challenges. Just getting there was quite a task as the roads in Zambia – even the T2 national ’expressway” – were undergoing construction with dirt road deviations, as they call them, being thwarted upon us almost immediately as we left Lusaka. Then there was the M15; the road to Siavonga, that made the roads in our Northwest Province look freshly tarred; and finally the long dirt road which descends to the Eagle’s Rest resort, our final destination and the location of the festival. To say it was a bumpy ride would be a gross understatement.
Slightly shaken, we arrived just after nightfall and set up camp near the shore. At this point the beauty of Lake Kariba could not fully reveal itself to us but the twinkling of the Milky Way upon its expanse gave us a lingering sense of where we were. The moon shone brightly and the waters lapped softly and we were struck for that minute in a sense of wonder.
The first thing I do when I arrive at a festival to “white glove’ for a band is to introduce myself to the house engineer and check out FOH, the PA and stage. Alessandro Borzi of Zambian events management company Zirbo Zambia Limited supplied all of the technical requirements for the show including the audio, lighting, staging and projection. He, like most people in Zambia, is a friendly, jolly guy who was more than helpful in getting us sorted.
As I might have expected, the audio system was entirely analogue. I don’t think I’ve worked on an analogue console locally for the past few years given the rise of digital so this reminded me that I might have to redress my rusty analogue chops to adapt to the otherwise “older’ way of doing things. Nevertheless, the console was an otherwise good sounding 48 channel Allen & Heath GL4800 which was connected to a variety of outboard such as DBX 266 and 166 compressors, BBE and DBX graphic EQs, and various effects processors from Yamaha and Alesis such as the SPX 990, REV 500, SPX 90 and a Quadraverb.
The main PA was an RCF-loaded Proel system that included four CP15P point-source mid-high cabinets hung vertically two aside and eight Proel Edge SW181P subwoofers configured four a side in 2 x 2 stacks. The subwoofers too were loaded with RCFs while the mid-high cabinets were fitted with larger HF drivers. For sidefills, two JBL M350s were employed while six Proel NEOS12AXS active monitors handled stage monitoring duties.
For powering the system, a combination of QSC, Carver and Crest amplifiers were used while a BSS Omnidrive was used for speaker management.
Lighting was also quite basic with a combination of DTS 500 parcans, DTS 250 washes and a couple of DTS 2600W blinders. The lighting console was a Proel 24/48, the dimmers were Ianiro 6/2200s and the smoke machine was a DTS 1500. Probably one of the most interesting aspects of the show was the inclusion of a Retro Projection screen to the right of the stage that was backlit by an NEC 3600. Various camera feeds of the on-stage performers were fed to the screen which helped immensely in bolstering the overall feel of the gig.
So, as you can see, the system was far from state-of-the-art. To be honest, I struggled a little at first to get the band to sit nicely because the bass seemed to be strongest at the sides while at mix point there was very little. However, the crowd seemed to care less and I can understand why because standing there in the middle of the starry sky and soft sand underneath my feet, the sound took a back seat to the magical vibe that seemed to permeate around us. If there’s one thing I can say about Zambia; people are happy. It felt to me that regardless what was played for them a sense of unity prevailed, irrespective of genre, nationality or creed. Needless to say, the gig went well and we all shared a whisky as albinobeach’s set came to a close.
The wrap
The rest of the weekend was spent laughing, drinking and eating with old friends while we made new ones. On Saturday morning we took a house boat cruise along Lake Kariba that included a live reggae band on board. Two speakers, a power amplifier, a small mixer, a drum kit (with no cymbals), a tambourine, a keyboard, a bass guitar and couple mics was all they needed get a serious party off the ground. It was absolutely astonishing how much was done with so little and that is what embodied our trip to Siavonga: simplicity, good vibes and happy people.
