ABBA Voyage

“Without a song or a dance what are we?”

On May 26, the four members of ABBA were in attendance for the opening night of ABBA Voyage, their revolutionary concert which sees them perform their greatest hits as digital avatars, in their very own ABBA Arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. ABBA Voyage is a concert like no other: directed by Baillie Walsh and produced by Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson, with the digital ABBA’s created by legendary VFX company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), choreography by Wayne McGregor, a ten-piece live band that play live throughout the concert, and cutting-edge lighting and audio technology.

Green Wall Designs (GWD) was contracted in 2020 to provide Lighting Programming and contributions to Lighting Design under the creative vision of Director Baillie Walsh and in collaboration with Visual Consultants TETRO. We provided pre-visualization renders through the creative process, and later lighting data and digital set to be ingested by ILM for several songs. We also provided a Lighting Direction & Programming team on site in the arena as a part of the wide creative technical team making the show come to life during rehearsals. This project really challenged ourselves and the technology available in many ways and forced us to develop new workflows, but also to trust our experience as a lot of decisions were made long before they even started to build the arena. It is certainly a milestone for us as a company. Thank You to ABBA, Baillie Walsh and the producers for trusting us, and to all the rest of the team for great collaboration!

GWD TEAM

Lighting Director – Fredrik Stormby
Associate Lighting Director – Mike Smith
Lighting Programmer – Ishai Mika, Dom Adams
Disguise Programmer – Emanuel Tilly, Robert Witt
Video Content Artist – David Nordström, David Carvajal, James Carter
Visualization/Modeling Artist – Isak Gabre
Entrance Tunnels – Associate Design and Renders – Andreas Bini

CREDITS

Aniara Creative: Producer – Svana Gisla, Producer – Ludvig Andersson, Director – Baille Walsh, Technical Producer – Nick Levitt, Line Producer – Josh Barwick, ILM Movement Director – Ben Morris, VFX creative director – Nikki Penny, Choreographer – Wayne McGregor, Musical Director – Martin Lowe, Instrument Director – Philip Adams

Production: Technical Director – Joe Frisina, Head of Infrastructure – Chris Hey, Rigging Consultant – Jon Bray

Design: Design and Engineering Consultants – Jeremy Lloyd (WonderWorks), Venue Architects – Alicia Tkacz (Stufish Entertainment Architects), Visual Consultant – Mathieu Debay (Tetro), Audio Design – Scott Willsallen (Auditoria), Video Technical Director – Anthony Bezencon (VYV), Lighting Director – Fredrik Stormby (Green Wall Designs), Kinetic Design – Christopher Bauder (White Void), Laser Design – Michael Sollinger, Laser Design & Programming – Sascha Kwasny (Tarm ShowLaser)

Venue: Construction – Tony Wheeler & James Lee (ESG), Technical design – Andy Prescott (ESG), Structural Engineering – Ewa Hazla & Aran Chadwick (Atelier One), Concourse construction – Stage One

Suppliers: Systems Supplier – Ian Woodall & Paul McCauley (Solotech), Kinetics – Florian Fink (White Void), Lasers supplier #1 – Michael Sollinger, Lasers supplier #2 – Sascha Kwasny (Tarm ShowLaser), Rigging – Mike Goodwin & Calum Willoughby (Unusual Rigging), Automation & Stage – Geert Stockmans (WiCreations), LED Screen Wall Hardware – Brecht Moreels (Twenty-Three), Soft Goods Auditorium Wall – Tom Lambert (Black Out), Soft Goods Roll Drops – Daphne Cosquer (ShowTex), Custom stage barrier – Anthony Sinclair (EPS), Carpentry – Liam Hill (Coldharbour Industries)

PHOTO CREDITS
Johan Persson / ABBA Voyage
Ralph Larmann