A&I Techies Brings Down The House

Stormy weather was a challenge.

Working with Afropop sensation Dobet Gnahoré was a delight.

Arts & Ideas techies offered those takeaways on Monday as they worked hard to dismantle the festival’s main stage on the Green — and reflected on their work coordinating events, arranging sound production, and providing lighting that illuminates the artists for the people of New Haven to see.

Genevieve Peters was just one of the techies who helped to keep this year’s festival up and running throughout June.

Through heavy rains that jeopardized a few performances and even caused some to be canceled, the staff worked hard to ensure that the show went on.

Peters recalled one night when a rainstorm threatened to stop a performance. ​“We got through like a quarter of the set, and I was doing the spotlight,” she said. ​“Some of the other staff had to help me hold the curtain shut over the stage to keep the water out.”

Peters’s favorite performance of the month was Grammy winner and Afropop icon Dobet Gnahoré on Friday. Audio Exec Manager JP Queenan agreed.

​“It was my fourth time mixing front of house for a big festival sound system, so I got to employ everything I’ve learned before,” he said about his experience at this year’s fest.

As the audio exec manager, Queenan worked closely with the sound manager to provide performers with the perfect sound.

“For the first two weekends I was running the deck, running monitors,” he said.

It was Queenan’s second (nonconsecutive) year at Arts & Ideas, and he noted that the events seemed more widespread throughout New Haven, many taking place inside University Theatre instead of on the main stage in the Green.

Bryan Butler worked as part of the audio crew. Artists send instructions in advance regarding what sound equipment they need and where they need it, and Bryan’s job was to provide it. ​“It’s our job to have that mostly set up before the town arrives,” he said.

Butler also had fond memories of Dobet Gnahoré’s performance. ​“She had an absolutely killer band and her stage presence was amazing,” he said, describing how she inspired the crowd to come right up to the stage to dance. Also, ​“I was a very big fan of DakhaBrakha, a Ukrainian group,” he added. ​“They had a lot of really cool influences.”

Butler said of both Dobet Gnahoré and DakhaBrakha that ​“working with them was amazing, they were really nice.”

Arts & Ideas Director of Artistic Planning and Operations Melissa Huber has been with the festival for 21 years, and in her current position for three. She agreed that the largest challenge the staff faced was the weather.

“Weather’s always an issue,” she said. ​“One of the things that is great about the crew and working here is we always try and go until we can’t.” Either they go until they ​“run out of day,” or until the weather makes it too hazardous to continue.

“Every day is different, and it’s like fitting a bunch of puzzle pieces together,” said Huber. ​“Working at the festival is like building a puzzle every day.… During the festival, it takes 160 people to make the events happen. These folks work so hard to make wonderful art all across Connecticut.”