Firefest - Please No Strobes

[blackcat]

Can I ask anyone reading this, to support a superb rock festival with all the strobes firmly placed safely at the back of the lighting man's van.

Seriously, I love great melodic rock music, but I do have mental handicap with the 2 sides of my cerebellum being slightly out of synch. This creates many small problems, mainly to do with balance and co-ordination, that I manage as well as I can and I just get on with life, family, work, play in bands (I'll never be an Yngwie though) etc, however strobes represent a huge problem for me as I get double the flashing that anyone else gets and am likely to keel over and it takes days to recover. It can even twist my spine due to a chain reaction that confuses muscle reaction !!

Last Firefest saw a lot of strobes used during the Bonfire set. I asked the lighting man to stop using them as it makes me ill but he just shrugged and carried on. It ruined Gotthard's set for me and I left before Winger even took to the stage. It took 3 hours of breathing control and electro-magnets (!!) before I could even drive out of the car park. I tootled home in 3rd gear and knew I was in no fit state to drive safely.

I had similar problems at Journey in March and it seems more and more bands are using strobes, perhaps to make older rock stars look like they're moving faster on stage The last Whitesnake DVD is strobe torture.

The strobes don't improve the magical music and can affect a lot more people in ways that they are not even aware of. Please add your support to have them left out of Firefest.

Many Thanks

[Woody]

I'm Not a fan of Strobes, If anything I find them annoying, I'm surprised they still use them as strobe lighting triggers most people who suffer with epilepsy to have fits, and it is rather unfair to people who can not deal with strobe light for reasons beyond their control, to be excluded or made ill! I don't think you need strobe light effects to enhance a show, i'm sure a few people will argue with me over this as a lot of people see the LIGHT show as part of the experience.
I think people involved in the lighting part of shows should take this into consideration or even warn people about strobe lighting, before a person buys a ticket i.e on flyers or advertisments. If You see anything on TV or dvd involving strobe ligthing Their is Usually a Warning, and i think concerts should also warn about it.

Woody

[Alison]

The strobes don't improve the magical music and can affect a lot more people in ways that they are not even aware of. Please add your support to have them left out of Firefest.

Many Thanks

I agree they add nothing to the overall experience and, although I don't suffer to the extent that you describe, strobes certainly make me feel dizzy and nauseous. I sometimes cover my eyes when they come on which helps a bit.

I guess if you want to change things at Firefest, you need to go straight to the top!

[littlelenny65]

Strobe Lights afffect me, I'm a dysparxic and the flashing lights make it very hard for me to co-ordinate my movements, as well as the fact that a bi-product of this is that i am colour & light sensitive (asfedic).
It makes no difference to the music, as has already been said. We listen with our ears not our eyes :-)

[blackcat]

Hi Lenny

That sounds uncomfortable, at least I can watch with basic flashing lights. I remember when he played at Hull for Jack's people they started a strobe on us and I couldn't play right notes for toffee for a couple of tunes, I was seeing 3-4 guitar necks.

I put a thread about this on www.melodicrock.com and had some usesul comments back, mostly very supportive and sensible. Even Kieran, the Firefest Boss said he not keen strobes.

The way I see it is the music has to be pretty naff to need a flickering light to perk things up a bit.

[Alison]

blackcat said:

Hi Lenny

That sounds uncomfortable, at least I can watch with basic flashing lights. I remember when he played at Hull for Jack's people they started a strobe on us and I couldn't play right notes for toffee for a couple of tunes, I was seeing 3-4 guitar necks.

I put a thread about this on www.melodicrock.com and had some usesul comments back, mostly very supportive and sensible. Even Kieran, the Firefest Boss said he not keen strobes.

The way I see it is the music has to be pretty naff to need a flickering light to perk things up a bit.

I always thought there were rules about the length and, and number of times strobes could be used during a performance and that this was precisely because they cause such problems for some people?

I do like to see some lighting effects as it does add the atmosphere, but strobes make me feel nauseous, as do fairground rides....and the effect is similar really if you think about it!

[littlelenny65]

There are Alison, but i think they are mainly for light people who are photosensitive...unfiortunately not a lot is known about dyspraxia still..people think it's just a case of being a clumsy clot :-) but sometimes it can affect you in different ways, with me it's colour, flashing lights, and short term memory problems amongst some other things that make me me! ;-)

The Fair is coming to Hull shortly, it's the largest fair in Europe and it's a night mare for me, I used to go around it but as I get older and lights flash more and are getting more complex, just putting one foot in front of the other is incredibly difficult to do...I still try though because Cat is still at the age where she needs mum and Step dad with her to go round the place :-)