APRIL 25

WELCOME TO THE 11TH EDITION OF THE EUROVISION DIARY!

APRIL 25

Hello music lovers! Another day in paradise! I dare to say that spring is FINALLY here, just in time for the arrival of the Delegations. Thank you very mucho! Today we will dig deep into the wonderful world of Lighting and the amazing creatures at FOH.

But let’s start off with Matthias Rau, my Technical Manager for Lighting, double dutying as gaffer for the romantic guy that steals all my stuff. I first met this lovely fellow in a dusty venue in Moscow back in 2009, when we’re both hired by Procon to do the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Then we did 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 together, and are now romantically re united in the wonderful city of Kyiv, where we actually did Eurovision Junior together back in 2013, come to think about it.

We have also Andreas Türpe, Assistant LD in da house! Andy is the happy fellow who will sit in front of the stage together with the delegations to do the rough fixings and adjustments for lighting, so that is done and dusted before the delegations go to the viewing room.

Markus Ruhnke is taking care of Keylights. You might have seen his pretty face on ¨Most Wanted¨ posters at Pizzeria Napule.

Torsten “Icke” Berger is our Spot Caller. I’m not sure if he knows that his nickname means NO WAY in Swedish, and I’m not sure I dare to tell him…………

Sebastian “Huwi” Huwig is our video operator. He controls a total of 13 Green Hippo Boreal, 2 Espresso machines and a popcorn maker.

Raphael Demonthy programs all the Show lights. I tried to assign the rope lights under the Grand Stands to him as well, but he refused. He claims he’s too busy……………

 

HERE IS A PICTURE OF THEM, INSTALLED BY JOAN LYMAN, 2 HOURS BEFORE THEY WERE STOLEN:

Raphael Grebenstein “Grebi” or Raphael II, is assisting Raphael I. He adjusts the audience lights to the main design on stage.

Markus Janning is our MA Lighting Support tech. He makes sure that the network is up and running at all times. And with more than 67 000 control channels, there is quite a network to look after!

And Jerry Appelt posing for a selfie! The most romantic guy in the world. And one of the best lighting designers in the world. This is basically why he is here, we need great lighting, and we need romance. Lots of romance!

We also decided to celebrate with another birthday cake! …….Unfortunately Robert’s birthday is in December but the cake was great! It turned out that it was his passport’s issue date we were celebrating – so it should say “Happy Birthday Robert’s Passport”…… Professionals…………

 

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

So many questions………