Pearce Hire has successfully completed the first year of a new three year contract to provide all the power and site lighting to Soul Survivor at Bath and West Showground.

Soul Survivor is a Christian festival which took place from the 30th July – 25th August with the first week at The Stafford Showground and three weeks at Bath and West Showground.

The company drew on years of event electrics experience to install their well designed mains distribution systems and the utilization of temporary generators alongside in-house power supplies also saved money and energy.

The showground has a small 3 phase mains power feed located adjacent main venue which was used to power the AV and projection systems. For the main stage located in the Big Top, an additional synchronised pair of 350KVa generators gave a 400amp backed-up supply to power the stage lighting, audio, house lighting and backstage production areas. A further 10 smaller festival venues used for gigs, workshops and seminars plus an exhibition space with 80 exhibitors which also included café areas we're powered from the on- site mains supplies with all the power distribution being provided by Pearce Hire.

To save diesel and reduce the carbon output of the event, the careful site planning meant that the generators powering the big top could be turned off overnight when there was minimal power demand. Pearce Hire designed a simple but effective distribution system which allowed the generator part of the system to be switched over to the mains supply easily and quickly.

As the stage setup was in the 'round' the Pearce Hire team had to pull all the mains cables through specially installed underground ducts, this avoided any cables running through the public areas.

Each circuit was distributed using Pearce Hire's custom manufactured distribution equipment all built to the company’s renowned stringent standards, with individual RCD safety trips on each final circuit all circuits were fully tested during installation.

Dan Shelton, Pearce Hire’s Project Manager explained:

"This event followed on closely from Soul Survivor at Stafford, for which we have been working with organisers for the last three years, so it is great to further that relationship and become a part of the regular team of suppliers.

"A team of four Pearce Hire technicians were on site for the duration of the installation. One team member remained on site providing technical support for the duration of the event. This ensures a high standard of service throughout the event from start to finish."

Pearce Hire introduced fresh technology and ideas, providing all the power, site and stage lighting at the 2010 Cooperative Cambridge Folk Festival.

Pearce Hire's Managing Director Shaun Pearce and Project Manager Dan Shelton worked with Festival Manager Eddie Barcan and Production Manager Andrew Keightley to introduce a range of fresh ideas to reduce the carbon footprint, improve site aesthetics and technical production.

The urban location of the site meant that an existing 500amp mains power supply provided most of the site power. This year the company nd introduced new equipment for greater efficiency. Meter readings are taken at the start of the build and at the end of the event to gauge what power reductions have been made."

Pearce Hire ensured a stable, safe power supply to all festival areas including catering vendors, bars and concession stalls by using individual RCD protection for every final circuit thereby increasing the reliability of the whole distribution system.


Two pairs of synchronised generators powered the main stage to ensure there was no interruption to the weekend’s entertainment; individual generators powered the more remote site areas such as the camp site toilet blocks.

The site was given a new look with the introduction of low energy festoon lighting over the bars and solar power decorative lights on the wicker models, in conjunction with the festival's new Arts Coordinator. Pearce Hire's John Huson oversaw the installation of all three lighting rigs for the music stages.

Pearce Hire helped to reduce the power consumption of lighting through investment replacing 100 of the power hungry halogen fittings with 150w MBI light fittings. The introduction of photocells automatically turned all fixtures on and off saving both energy and manpower, as lights only functioned during the night time.

The Forestry Commission's 2010 Live Music Tour kicked off earlier this month with Pearce Hire making a concerted effort to reduce it’s carbon footprint.

The tour consists of 22 shows running for six consecutive weekends in June & July, bringing live music to seven unique forest locations for an evening of entertainment for all the family. This year's broad spectrum of acts includes Keane, Simply Red, Blondie, JLS and The Saturdays to name but a few.

Pearce Hire works across the whole tour, coordinating two teams and sets of equipment to provide all the site power and both site & stage lighting. This year has seen a significant change in the lighting design for the stage with the company utilising i-Pix BB4 LED Washlights instead of the Parcans previously used, halving the power consumption of the lighting rig from previous years. The rig also includes MAC 700 Profiles along with a handful of generic fixtures.

John Huson, Pearce Hire Project Manager said:

"The Forestry Commission we’re interested in exploring ways of making the concerts greener so this year we’ve designed a rig based around the incredibly bright i-Pix BB4 Washlights. Not only does this reduce the power consumption but it also gives more scope for dynamic effects than the traditional Parcan rig’s of previous years.

"One other consideration when designing for these shows is that for the vast majority of the show it’s largely daylight, only getting dark towards the very end of the show. Using a high output LED source not only provides the punch required for a daylight show but also provides some 'eye candy' in the rig, and we've designed a truss layout to maximise this."

Pearce Hire also invested in Robert Juliat Cyrano followspots for this years tour supplying between two or four spots per artist.

Other practices that Pearce Hire has introduced to reduce the power include the addition of its new photo-cell light sensors onto the site lighting fixtures. These automatically turn fixtures off during day light hours saving both fuel and man power as previously this would have been done manually or left on.