Founded by the late South African rapper Riky Rick, the third edition of Cottonfest deliver a diversity of music to a 10,000-strong crowd at The Station in Newtown, Johannesburg. Offering both established and emergent South African talent with more than 130 supporting artists on the line-up, the event production, called on the resources of South African A/V production specialist Bad Weather Productions (responsible for technical production throughout the festival, including a live stream broadcast), Stage Audio Works (equipment, and assistance with the StreamWorks streaming), and Blue Array Productions, who supplied a d&b audiotechnik PA systems based on J-Series with V-Series front fills across the three stages.

With the passing of Riky Rick, this year’s festival was a two-day celebration of his legacy championed by event co-founder Alain Ferrier and his events and activation company The Beanstalk.

The constant flux of Covid-19 regulations meant that the design of the event itself had changed multiple times before determining stage placement and audio coverage that could accommodate an audience larger than that originally anticipated.

‘We were thrilled to have all three stages running strictly d&b systems as per the client request,’ says Blue Array Productions’ Nathan Thiart. ‘We only had two days to install all the systems for the festival, and we were not let down by how straightforward it is to deploy the PA. The flexibility and scalability of d&b systems are a huge benefit.’

The feedback from the performance of the d&b set-up was resoundingly positive: ‘All in all, we had great coverage throughout each of the venues with artists complimenting us on the quality of sound at each stage,’ Thiart reports.

With the growing popularity of the festival, there was a greater wish to deliver high-quality live streaming this year. To this end, Bad Weather opted for a StreamWorks solution from Stage Audio Works.

According to The Beanstalk’s brief, the livestream was to be lifestyle focused, staying true to Cottonfest’s roots by showcasing the extraordinary outfits and activities present at the event. This was easier said than done, however, as it required Bad Weather to deploy an entire B-Roll team to capture and edit footage from around the festival to be played during changeovers to avoid repetitive ad-rolls.

Bad Weather worked with Inka Kendzia, who was the Festival VJ responsible for Broadcast Assets, to introduce elements of augmented reality-based branding experiences to the livestream, to ensure that any advertising played during the stream was as engaging as the rest of the content.

The official Cottonfest 2022 livestream received excellent support, with more than 150,000 unique visitors tuning in over the two days, with peak viewership reaching 7,000. This is a testament to the efforts of all parties involved, but especially so for Bad Weather’s tight collaboration with StreamWorks. Together, they worked diligently to ensure a premium viewing experience, with no downtime. The implementation of safeguards and redundancies ensured that the show went on, whatever happened. They went as far as employing an internet provider to supply internet on site, as well as using both MTN and Vodacom Cellular data in the initial phase to cover all bases.

For a seamless livestream experience, camera lines and angles needed to be considered from the outset and incorporated into the stage design. Consequently, Jonathan Bandli, the Creative Director at Bad Weather Productions explains that they simulated the setup first: ‘We designed all the stages as well as all the camera placement and shot lists inside of Vectorworks, a 3D, collaborative piece of design software that was crucial in understanding what we will see through the lens before we get to site.’

For his part, Bandli was thrilled with the result: ‘When combined with an incredible graphics package, we were able to deliver an extremely dynamic stream that kept viewers engaged throughout the festival – a fact that was demonstrated by the sustained viewership data. We are proud to continue building the festival in the way that Riky Rick would have wanted.’