Dallas-based L-Acoustics Certified Provider Onstage Systems served as the exclusive audio supplier for Ubbi Dubbi EDM festival staged in late April at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, providing sound reinforcement systems utilizing a range of L-Acoustics loudspeakers and supporting components for all of the event’s four stages.
Ubbi Dubbi — billed as the first large-scale North American festival to make its official post-pandemic comeback –attracted more than 30,000 fans on each of its two days to hear artists like Kaskade, Illenium, Carnage, The Adventure Club, Kill The Noise, and dozens more celebrate the communal experience of live music. Event promoter Disco Donnie Presents (DDP) called on Onstage Systems to handle all concert sound reinforcement, which has been busy of late in also serving recent shows by Deadmau5 and Brett Young.
Onstage has worked with DDP on numerous festivals since 2015, including the inaugural Ubbi Dubbi, which took place at Fort Worth’s Panther Island Pavilion in 2019. The year’s lineup presented performances by 45 national and international EDM artists and 27 “hometown heroes.”
For the primary “Ubbi’s Stage,” Onstage flew six L-Acoustics K1 over eight K2 per side as the mains, with eight KS28 subs ground-stacked below each array, plus 16 SB28 double-stacked in groups of four across the face of the stage with a single Kudo enclosure atop each sub-cluster for front fill, all driven by LA8 amplified controllers.
“I’m really loving this rig size; six K1 over eight K2 is a perfect match for many of our shows,” says Onstage Audio Department Manager Jeremy Helt. “It’s compact, not too heavy, a perfect combination of K1 and K2, and friendly in the truck pack as well. Given the size of the main hangs and the audience area, no delays were necessary. The width of coverage from K2 meant we didn’t need an outfill covering the VIP area either.”
He adds that L-Acoustics Soundvision is a stellar system design platform: “Soundvision has become an extremely reliable tool for predicting audience coverage, tuning details, and even timing effects. Autosolver, in particular, has taken so much time and trial-and-error out of the process that everything is now very streamlined. In most real-world situations, there is little tuning to be done if the Soundvision process has been correctly completed beforehand, and Ubbi Dubbi 2021 was a terrific example of that.”
The festival’s secondary “Dubbi’s Stage” utilized ten K2 per side as the mains with a double-stacked wall of 24 SB28 subs spread out across the stage face, all driven by LA8 amp/controllers. Meanwhile, the “Zoom Room” stage utilized arrays of four K2 per side plus SB28 subs while the “Ubbi Dubbi World” circular shade structure featured a four-stack surround design using Kudo with K1-SB subs to support trance acts.
Both “Ubbi’s Stage” and “Dubbi’s Stage” were also equipped with the appropriately-dubbed “Texas headphones” for stage monitoring. These comprised three Kara over one SB18 sub per side for DJ side fills and were similarly LA8-powered. According to Johnston, “Texas headphones were the requirement on every rider this year because they look cool and sound amazing,” he says. “Once all the big names started using them several years ago, the rest of the DJs followed suit, and now everybody asks for them.”
For Onstage Systems CEO/President Hyacinth Belcher, Ubbi Dubbi was a tremendously welcome return of an event that companies like hers have been hoping for over the past year. “This was a mile-marker event for sure, and it felt great to be the first audio company back for an event that brought in 60,000 people post-Covid,” she says. “During the pandemic, the Onstage team came together to produce eight weeks of Covid-safe drive-in events where we kept our K2 busy! Our team was able to stay sharp and in good practice, so when we came out for Ubbi Dubbi, we could come out strong with a PA that we love and had taken very good care of during our ‘year break,’ so to speak.”
“Being in the driver’s seat and seeing all the smiles—people glowing with happiness to finally be able to attend festivals again—to listen to our favorite artists, and be outside under the sun and the stars—it was incredible,” she adds. “Witnessing the faces of artists, crew, and attendees when the rig powered up and music traveled across the landscape was priceless. Music heals, and we were all there soaking in the beautiful elixir!”
Following Ubbi Dubbi 2021, Onstage Systems has kept its K1/K2 systems busy in Hutto (a city just outside of Austin) and Fort Worth for Deadmau5 shows, on a Brett Young concert at TCU’s Carter Stadium, and for other recent events.
