The annual Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in the UK, this year presenting acts such as Guns & Roses and hosting Elton John’s final UK performance, saw the event’s Acoustic Stage equipped with EM Acoustics loudspeakers for the second consecutive year.
Housed inside a large red tent, the Acoustic Stage is sometimes said to be a “festival within a festival.” Blues, folk, contemporary and country music are all on the playlist, and this year’s line-up included the Magic Numbers, Seth Lakeman, Badly Drawn Boy, Richard Thompson, Newton Faulkner, Paul Carrack, Steve Earle, and Rumer, amongst others. In conjunction with De Brabant Audio, EM supplied the PA package for the stage.
“We are thrilled to have returned to the Acoustic Stage for the 2023 festival,” says Mike Wheeler, operations director at EM Acoustics. “Returning to Glastonbury for a second year confirms our belief in the capabilities of the HALO-A system. The feedback we’ve received has yet again been universally positive. The variety of acts and genres that play on this eclectic stage truly showcase the abilities of this system. We are thrilled with the outcome of the weekend and honoured to have our products powering a part of this prestigious and beloved festival.”
In total, eight HALO-A were used per side accompanied with 24 Quake subwoofers deployed as a steered array to help ensure even low-frequency distribution across the very wide audience area. Six R10s provided front fill, while two R12s acted as left-right outfill.
EM Acoustics also delivered a monitor package consisting of eight individual mixes of M-C15 coaxial passive stage monitors, an R12 and ST-218 per side as sidefill, and M-C15/ST-215 drumfills to deliver focused audio specifically for the drum position. Loudspeakers were driven by EM DQ20D amplifiers running on AES and fed by an XTA MX36 console switcher to handle guest consoles.
A standout performance on Friday night was that of English singer-songwriter Seth Lakeman, with the artist’s front of house engineer, Med Rann, noting that the system was, “Clean and punchy, and super easy to work with. Seth has a lot of what I generally refer to as ‘geometry’ in his vocal, which can be a challenge to deliver clearly on some systems. On tour, I usually turn to a lot of multiband dynamics to make sure he’s super clear. But even busking this on the house console, I was impressed how easily his vocal sat in the PA. I give it five stars and would absolutely use it again.”
“Working with the EM Acoustics team this year was a pleasure as usual,” adds Fox Valentine, the production manager for the stage. “The Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury Festival is a very challenging venue. As a tensile fabric big top, there are complex reflections to deal with. We also have the challenge of adhering to very stringent noise control restrictions.
“Despite this, EM Acoustics managed to achieve full spectrum coverage throughout the whole auditorium. The sound was refined, and yet very full-bodied. The Quake subwoofers provided enough power to blow your socks off but were set up by EM’s engineers in a manner totally sympathetic to the genre of music on the Acoustic Stage. Overall, the best sound in the 34 years I have worked at this venue.”
