For RAVE-L, Holland Festival brought a large-scale production into the Grote Zaal at the Muziekgebouw. Les Apaches! played Ravel, Parrish Smith provided the electronic layer, and the room was reshaped into something between a concert hall and a club space. Not exactly a rave. I’ve been to raves, trust me.
On the build day I was the house technician for the Grote Zaal, with sound as my main area. In practice that means helping the company in whatever way is needed: getting the patch into the building, tuning and alignment, pulling cables, setting up intercoms, and keeping the next question from turning into a problem. Good, varied work.
The technical sheet was very Holland Festival: big, busy, and at times simply overwhelming. An orchestra setup with 23 performers, video, live cameras, a 31K projector, a 12-metre-wide screen, haze, strobes, extra RIOs from Peak Audio because the input count kept climbing, and a DJ setup that had to be changed over downstage during the applause.
Mirror Ball in the Grote Zaal
The strongest visual came from the large mirror ball in the middle of the hall. With a few powerful spots aimed at it, beams went everywhere. It is an effect that is easy to explain and still instantly works: a concert hall that normally feels tight and controlled suddenly has movement in every corner.
The house MDG hazer helped a lot with that. Visiting companies often ask to use it instead of what they brought themselves, and rightly so. It is a serious machine. Not a small cloud that disappears after two minutes, but a unit that calmly fills the whole room so the light has something real to draw in.
Seb, Rik, and Two Kinds of Technicians
Seb Jongejans was there on behalf of the production. I know Seb well because I previously took over part of his show with Dunja Djocovic when he was unavailable. Once again, he had everything under control: warm, capable, relaxed, and with enough overview to keep a production of this size together.
My buddy Rik van Leeuwen handled monitors. Rik and I complement each other nicely. He works very intuitively; I am more analytical. Two completely different kinds of technicians, neither one better than the other, but together a pretty unbeatable combination. Everyone was on point during those two days.
Classical with a Club Layer
On the show day I was not in the Grote Zaal, but in the Entreegebouw. A separate DJ setup for the afterparty had already been built there by an external company the day before. My job was mostly switching it on, setting up our DJ set, connecting it, testing it, and dealing with whatever else came up. I mostly worked alongside Tim, the external lighting technician. He was there to make things blink.
To me, RAVE-L clearly had a classical foundation. There were plenty of traditional musicians on stage playing Ravel. The electronic layer and the lighting made it bigger and more physical, but it did not become a rave. More like a classical concert with a club layer.
The Changeover That Did Not Change Over
The ending had been discussed and rehearsed in detail. After the concert, the musicians would take a short applause, then walk off the stage into the hall, while Parrish Smith’s setup was changed over to the front during that applause. He could then continue straight into a DJ set in the Grote Zaal.
Except the company kept taking applause. And again. And again. Until the applause had run out.
Then there was nothing.
The audience did what audiences do at that point: they walked out. Then Parrish Smith still came on, in a half-empty hall. People from Holland Festival rushed into the entrance hall to stop visitors and send them back in. Chaos. Such a shame, because at that point the DJ set in the Grote Zaal no longer made any real sense.