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Should someone still be unaware of what’s going on three days long in Clisson, here’s a self explanatory set piece.
Now in its 9th year, Hellfest has grown to become one of the three largest festivals in France, attracting more than 150,000 metal fans over its 3 days.
For the second year, rental company Melpomen brought the NEXO STM modular line array down to the peaceful town of Clisson (near Nantes), for a spectacular line-up of rock and heavy metal legends – Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, Rob Zombie, Megadeth and Soundgarden.
Although there are six venues at the Hellfest, the big names appear on the famous twin stages, Main Stage 1 and Main Stage 2. The action alternates between these two, and the PA systems effectively run as one, continuously.
Mainstage 1 & 2 sticked together and ready to fire hours of tough rock three days long. Don’t look for the main hangs, they are hidden behind huge drapes made of acoustically transparent fabric.
Both stages were equipped with identical STM systems, each had a dedicated L/R main hang of 15x STM M46 Main Modules and 15x STM B112 Bass Modules per side; 60x S118 Subs were ground-stacked in groups in a cardioid configuration. This totalled 60x sets of STM, 180x cabinets in all.
After Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, please welcome Melpomen’s wall of subs. Not the nicest place to be and enjoy the show, this wall is made of 12 S118 pushing forward and 3 units cleaning backward. Along with his stage left counterpart, it’s her to help and boost the low frequency response of the 30 STM systems hanged above.
Also on stage were NEXO GEO T sidefills and GEO S12 frontfills, and a large number of 45°N-12 line monitors.
Out of STM’s main hangs coverage, three Geo S12 provide the audience closer to the stage with something but subs and guitar amps !!
Low profile but high quality 45° N-12 Nexo wedges on duty during one of Hellfest’s shows.
In sweltering 30-degree heat, Melpomen’s team was led by crew chief David Prevost, with Cedric Bernard and Christophe Rousseau supervising FOH on Main Stage 1, and Samuel Biraies and Wilfrid Hubert on Main Stage 2.
Contact : www.melpomen.net
