A three-day epic of world music and reggae, coupled with a supersonic camping experience, the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary (around Summer Solstice as usual), with a roster of colourful and dynamic artists performing on two outdoor stages to create a profusion of multicultural sights and sounds.

Sierra Nevada West takes place in the Calaveras County Fairgrounds, nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills, just outside
the small town of Angels Camp. Also known as Frogtown, the spot got its fame from the Mark Twain story, The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

The distinguished roster of artists included The Wailers, Reggae Firebrand, Capleton, Gary Pine, Barrington Levy, influential early ska vocalist, Prince Buster, legendary Daddy U-Roy, Brigadier Jerry Eek-A-Mouse, Pato Banton, the Twinkle Brothers, Della Grant, Johnny Clarke and Leroy Sibbles. Dance hall sounds into the wee hours were provided by Yami Boli, Stone Love and Mighty Crown, along with the Latin-influenced Big Mountain, the high energy B-Side Players, and Bayanga.

Loudsound, one of Northern California’s finest production and rental firms, provided high quality audio for the high altitude Sierra Nevada West Music Festival for close on nine years now. Starting with a proprietary front-loaded speaker which company head Steve Palmer describes as, “big, heavy and not very efficient,” Loudsound eventually bought their first Martin Audio system (32 x W8C’s and 16 x WSX’s) — “small, lightweight, and way more efficient.”

This year’s Sierra Nevada Festival was the first time outdoors with the W8L line array. Asked about the W8L’s performance, the colourful Palmer claims in no uncertain terms that the system “gets up and down fast, like two rabbits in the springtime, has smooth, consistent coverage and the best low end I’ve heard to date.”

The side fill system had loads of headroom, adds Palmer. “We now have put together a monitor and side fill system where one of the reggae artists actually ask us to turn down the low end. I love it,”

FOH system equipment included two Soundcraft MH4 mixing consoles with four racks of power including two QSC PL6.0 and four QSC PL236 power amps.

The monitor system consisted of LE12J floor monitors, four Blackline S218 subs with four W8C mid high cabinets for side fills. Monitor power was provided by AB International and QSC, processing by dbx, Drawmer and Klark Teknik with Shure, AKG, Audio-Technical, and Sennheiser microphones.

The crew included Scott Prentice, house engineer; Steve Palmer, assistant engineer; Loren Miller, band engineer; Ryan Cornelius, system tech/monitor engineer, and Robert Hardiman, assistant monitor engineer.

This year’s Sierra Nevada Music Fest was another towering success, with 6000 to 8000 attendees each day. As Palmer concludes, “The promoters were extremely happy with the Line Array system as was the audience. All day long, we had people coming to the front of house mix and saying how clear and consistent the sound was from front of venue to the back.”