The annual Qooqqut festival, held in mid-August of this year and organized by Greenland’s cultural center, Katauq, saw sound technician Angunnguaq Larsen providing front of house mixes on a 48-channel SQ-6 console from Allen & Heath.
The festival brings music and culture to an insolated shore in the Nuuk fjord complex, cradled by the dramatic mountains of western Greenland. With no roads, phone signal or Internet onsite, Qooqqut 2020 offers a rare opportunity to step outside the everyday world and experience a diverse program of music, workshops and traditional sports. Tickets were capped at an intimate 250 for each day and the event was planned in close cooperation with the authorities to ensure compliance with Covid 19 guidelines.
Larsen, who works with Katauq, also employed an iPad running the SQ MixPad app to provide a portable way for him to control all artist monitors. An SQ Dante card in the console enabled the FOH/monitor split as well as providing multitrack recording capability. A pair of portable DX168 I/O expanders were placed onstage, connecting to the SQ-6 over the SLink protocol.
“The main reasons we chose to bring our SQ were the audio quality and the size,” Larsen notes. “For this festival you can’t just put the equipment in a truck and drive to the site – everything has to be carried in by hand. I really like the sound quality and the headroom you get from SQ. I also appreciate the DEEP processing models in the compressor pack, and the onboard FX provide depth when you need it. With a busy programme and short setup times, the mixer’s ease of use and fast workflows are also really important. You can do pretty much anything with SQ.”
When it’s not running FoH by the fjord, the SQ-6 is part of the AV system at Katuaq in Nuuk, utilized for mixing performances and conferences in the center’s 508-capacity main hall and two smaller event spaces.
