One month on, Music Instrument News looks back at Glastonbury 2024 with fond memories, with the one small exception of a brief visit to Bath A&E reducing our festival experience by one day.. (no fault of Glastonbury).
Having missed 2022, returning for 2023 was an absolute delight, this said from a family of non-campers. How would 2024 compare following the 2023 debut appearance from the likes of Sir Elton John, along with Guns and Roses on the Pyramid stage. Last year was busy, COVID seeming a life-time ago; what would Glastonbury 2024 deliver?
For many festival goers, it is the appeal of Glastonbury’s multi-stages, music genres, music legends, young up and coming, introducing acts, every cuisine of food you could dream of that draws this 200K+ crowd, but the festival is so much more with companies using the abundance of visitors to share and campaign and educate the thousands of guest that flock to this annual migration at Worthy Farm.
Having received our invitation from Lisa Nasta this year, an Event Manager and Festival Programmer having worked at Weyfest, WOMAD, and Glastonbury Festivals, aswell as a Director of Re-Play Music, a company that donates re-cycled instruments and educates children with a permanent location at the Kidzfield at Glastonbury Festival, we prepared for a thankful number of sunny days ahead of us and a catch up with Lisa in the Green Futures field.
As media supporters of the Green Futures Field, MIN wishes to thank the kind support from both Korg UK with the supply of both a Mapex Kit and Paiste Cymbals, along with equal thanks to Headline Audio for the supply of a Nord keyboard for the Toad Hall Stage in the Green Futures Field for Glastonbury 2024. Please see the specs below for the equipment that helped entertain thousands of visitors throughout the duration of Glastonbury 2024 on the Toad Hall Stage, which made it possible for artists around the world to rock up and use their gear!
MIN took the opportunity to speak with Lisa about the start of her company, and her involvement in the education of children, and adults, and Climate Change.
Where did your company originate Lisa, how did you start re-cycling instruments?
I am a qualified violin restorer and guitar technician. When I left college, I was in an apprenticeship to learn about repairing and restoring old guitars, that was at ‘Andy’s’ in Denmark Street in London. After a few years I went self-employed and started repairing instruments across South London and the south of the country. At one point, for quite a large number of the schools and music centres in Brighton and Hove, Greenwich, Croydon, and around the south, I would have repaired their violins for their orchestras, for quite a number of years. I also repaired instruments for around six independent instrument shops. And I discovered that some of them had back rooms full of broken instruments, and after a couple of years of doing repairs, they were still there. I asked the owners what happened, and they told me it wasn’t cost-effective to repair them, so they keep them for a couple of years, then write them off and get rid of them. So, I asked if I could have them, and repair them and hopefully donate them to a local community project. That’s how Replay started. Because I was self-employed, I could organise my timetable and give up half a day a week, and that become a full day. I got an organisation called Core Arts in Hackney which works with people with special needs. This was about twenty years ago. They didn’t have enough budget to afford instruments for music classes, so I started donating instruments there, mostly guitars. Then I donated a load of instruments to Surrey County Hospitals. One day, I got a call from the guy who worked with Billy Bragg on his Jail Guitar Doors project, rehabilitating prisoner through music. They had a load of guitars. And I’m bringing Rodney (Lisa’s husband is American acoustic musician Rodney Branigan) into it now, one of his first UK gigs was at Wandsworth Prison, opening for Billy Bragg for Jail Guitar Doors.
How does that link into the Green Futures Project at Glastonbury?
I am the Music Coordinator for the Kidzfield at Glastonbury, and I had far too many instruments in our house, they were up the stairs, the bathroom, everywhere, Rodney says they still are! But at the time, there weren’t any music projects for children at Festivals. I had a couple of friends who were doing things at Glastonbury Kidzfield, and I said I had loads of instruments, and I suggested making a workshop. It started out by the café with the idea that we could entertain the children while their parents had five minutes to have a cup of tea and a sit down. It’s grown and grown to the point where we now have two really large marquees at the Glastonbury Kidzfield. We were running that for years, and I was booking gigs for Rodney at that time. And he was going gigs at Toad Hall at Glastonbury, and bringing in guest guitarists. So, we started linking the Kidzfield with the Green Futures Field because it’s all about the future, and recycling, and we started running adult workshops I was co-booking at Toad Hall, and I have been running production for them for the last couple of years.
What was the reaction from Glastonbury Festival when the project began to grow?
It was fantastic, really supportive. We have had articles on the Replay Project in the Free Glastonbury Press, more than once, and quite a while back we were voted one of the Top Ten Things To Do at Glastonbury, and that was our workshops. So, we find ourselves across two parts of the Festival site now. Glastonbury Kidzfield and the Green Futures, and these were part of the original Festival when it started.
What’s involved at Green Futures?
It’s partly educational, about climate change. It’s been teaching and rallying about climate change for thirty years. The original coordinators are slowly stepping away because they are in their seventies now, and they’ve been there for more than thirty years. I have been asked if I would be interested in stepping in as a mentor and coordinating the field with a few other people. It seems to be working quite well.
Michael Eavis (Glastonbury Festival Founder) was an environmentalist since before the term was in popular usage, wasn’t he?
Oh yes, he always has been, and that’s why he was so pleased with what has been achieved in the Green Field. It’s a nice safe space if you want to relax from the festival, which can be overwhelming, it’s very busy. People discover the Green Field and they can escape into the tranquillity in the midst of all the madness. We are just one of the fields, but we have always specialised in Climate Change education, doing the research, and hopefully achieving the goal that everyone who comes into the field leaves with a piece of knowledge that will make them aware of the environment. Whoever takes it on, it’s our job to move it forward in a positive way. It is such a huge topic, and they have been ahead of this for years. There is a Science Area, and a Speakers’ Corner for current issues to be discussed. A lot of the traders are charities, and there are advice stands, so everything that comes in is something that benefits everything.
Do you have any plans to expand further into the Glastonbury Festival?
I have to say one field is more than enough work. The Festival is thirty-five individual areas, and each one is a Festival in its own area. They all specialise. We have seven stages in our field. We are the grass roots of the Festival and a lot of bands that start out in our field graduate to the bigger stages. Or they get into the Festival circuit. People build audiences there, and take their audiences with them when they move up. Rodney Branigan is one of them, he played the Acoustic Stage a few years ago. Show Of Hands have played the Avalon. The Magic Numbers headlined with us last year, some of them come back. Billy Bragg will come back and do a gig for us every now and then. We get some of the major acts who want to do a small acoustic gig, and they come over to us.
Is there potentially a wider application for your work in other Festivals? If you have built a team at Glastonbury, presumably you can do the same for other Festivals?
|There is. We’re heading for Sweden, where I will be talking on a panel for Festivals, and Rodney is playing a headline set. I have been to Bulgaria speaking about the same ideas. It’s about educating people about being green before the Festival is open. Then, people have expectation about things they can and can’t do. It depends who busy people are, but I will go everywhere to offer advice on starting a green ethos for a Festival. I run a Kids Area at Wayfest which is not a big Festival, and I run WOMAD Kids Area, and we teach violin, cello, and guitar. We’ve set up a music syllabus on how to learn in a Festival environment. It’s the opposite to school, and kids get very involved in the idea of learning an instrument in a Festival setting. At the Kids Area at Wayfest, everything is recycled. No plastic, we clean everything and recycle when we finish.
Education is the thread that runs through what you do.
It is, absolutely. Some of the smaller Festivals in other countries that have hot summers don’t realise they can approach an energy provider and get solar panels provided. You can get green energies in place, you just need to know how to go about it, and that is what I am aiming to do, to educate Festival organisers about how to get green initiatives into their organisations.
I have heard a whisper about a ‘green PA System for festivals?
We are looking at trialling that, maybe next year. At the moment we are looking at maybe trying it on a really small scale, maybe an ‘Open Mic’ set-up, something like that. It is at the very very early stages at the moment, so there is nothing firmly in place. We’ll come back and let you know when we have something to talk about on that.
What’s your plans for the future at Glastonbury?
We are always looking at how we can upgrade and improve our provision at the Festival, if we can bring in more sponsorship, and more involvement from businesses who are willing to help and support is. Everything is a step at a time. We are always looking at what our new goals are, and how to set about achieving them. We look forward all the time, it takes over your life a bit!
Used on Toad Hall Stage – Green Futures Field Glastonbury 2024
Nord Stage 4 Compact
General
- Master Level Control
- Wooden Pitch Stick
- Modulation Wheel
- 512 Programs – 8 Banks with 8 Pages each. Each Page has 8 Program locations
- Preset Library with Organ, Piano and Synth Presets including effects. 2×64 Organ Preset locations, 2×64 Piano Preset locations, 8×64 Synth Preset locations.
- 8 Live Programs
- 2 Individual Layer Scene Setups
- 3 Morph sources: Modulation Wheel (also controllable by Swell pedal), Control Pedal, Aftertouch
- Stereo and Mono output routing options
- Programmable Transpose +/- 6 semitones
- Master Clock functionality with manual, external and tap-tempo rate control
- Internal and MIDI clock source
- MIDI over USB functionality
- Level control
- Aftertouch
- Up to 3 Split Points (4 Keyboard Zones) with visual LED indication between zones
- 3 Split Point width (crossfade) options: Lrg, Sml or Off
Organ Section
- Nord C2D B3 Tone wheel Organ simulation
- Vox Continental and Farfisa models
- 2 Digital Pipe Organ models
- B3 Bass mode
- Physical Drawbars with LED graphs
- Preset or Drawbar Live mode
- Percussion controls
- Vibrato / Chorus control
- 2 Layers (2-Part Multitimbral)
Piano Section
- 2 GB memory for Piano sounds
- All sounds can be replaced using Nord Sound Manager (Mac/Win)
- 120 Voice Polyphony
- Categories: Grand, Upright, Electric, Digital, Layer and Clav/Harpsichord
- 3 Selectable Keyboard Touch Curves (Heavy, Medium, Light)
- Piano Timbre controls with custom settings for Electric Pianos and Clavinet
- String Resonance for acoustic Grand Pianos and Uprights
- Selectable Soft Piano Release
- Pedal Noise when used with Nord Triple Pedal 1, Nord Triple Pedal 2 or Nord Sustain Pedal 2 on selected acoustic and electric pianos
Synth Section
- Nord Wave 2 Synth Engine with Sample Playback
- Dedicated OLED Display for Waveform/Sample selection and parameter editing
- 1 GB Memory for Nord Sample Library
- All samples can be replaced using Nord Sound Manager (Mac/Win)
- 46 Voice polyphony
- Oscillator Types: Analog (incl. Super, Noise and Misc waveforms), Digital Waves, FM and Sample
- Analog Waveform options: Pure, Shape, Shape Sine, Multi, Super, Sync, Bell, Misc (Noise)
- Classic Transistor Ladder Filter (LP M), 12- & 24-dB Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass and combined Low Pass/Band Pass (LP+BP) filter
- Filter Drive: Off, 1, 2 and 3
- Filter Tracking: Off, 1/3, 2/3 and Full
- 3 Unison modes
- Vibrato modes controllable from Mod Wheel, Aftertouch and pedal.
- Filter envelope (Attack, Decay/Sustain, Release) with Velocity control
- Amplitude envelope (Attack, Decay/Sustain, Release) with Velocity control
- Oscillator envelope (Attack, Decay/Sustain, Release) with Velocity control
- LFO with 5 waveforms/modes: Square, Triangle, Ramp Dn, Ramp Up and Sample & Hold
- Advanced Arpeggiator with Arp, Polyphonic and Gate modes
- Arpeggiator Patterns for all modes, with Accent and Pan options
- LFO and Arpeggiator synchronizable to Master Clock
- 3 Layers (3-Part Multitimbral)
Effects
- Mod 1: Tremolo, Auto Pan, Ring Modulator, Wah-Wah, Auto-Wah, Pump (Sidechain modulation). Variation for each effect
- Mod 2: Phaser, Flanger, Vibe, Chorus, Ensemble, Spin. Variation for each effect
- Delay with Tempo, Feedback and Mix (Dry/Wet) controls, Ping Pong (stereo taps), Tap-Tempo, Feedback Filter (HP/LP/BP), Feedback Effects with Variations and panel selectable Analog mode.
- 3 types of Amp/Speaker simulations, Twin, JC and Small. Variation for each model
- Filter Mode (HP24/LP24) with Cut-off, Resonance and Mix controls
- Tube amp simulation with adjustable overdrive
- 3-band Equalizer with sweepable mid. EQ ranges: 100 Hz, 200 Hz – 8 kHz and 4 kHz
- Rotary Speaker: selectable speed (Stop, Slow and Fast) and separate overdrive
- Effect rates/tempo can be synchronized to the Master Clock
- Compressor with Fast Mode
- Reverb: 6 algorithms (Spring, Booth, Room, Stage, Hall and Cathedral) with Dark/Bright modes and Variation/Chorale options
Keyboard
- Nord Stage 4 88: 88-key Triple Sensor Hammer Action keyboard with Aftertouch. Range: A-C
- Nord Stage 4 73: 73-key Triple Sensor Hammer Action keyboard with Aftertouch. Range: E-E
- Nord Stage 4 Compact:73-key Triple Sensor Semi Weighted Waterfall keyboard with Aftertouch. Range: E-E
Connections
- 4 Assignable Audio Outputs – ¼”, 6,35 mm jacks, unbalanced
- Stereo Headphone output – ¼”, 6,35 mm stereo jack
- 1 Monitor input – 1/8″, 3,5 mm stereo jack
- Sustain Pedal – ¼”, 6,35 mm jack. Compatible with Nord Sustain Pedal 2 (continuous sensor), Nord Triple Pedal 1 and switch-type pedals
- Triple Pedal – 5 pin DIN connector. Compatible with Nord Triple Pedal 2
- Rotor Pedal – ¼”, 6,35 mm jack.
Use a momentary pedal or a switch-type pedal. - Organ Swell Pedal – ¼”, 6,35 mm TRS stereo jack.
- Control Pedal – ¼”, 6,35 mm TRS stereo jack.
- Foot Switch input – ¼”, 6,35 mm jack.
Use a momentary two-button pedal or a single switch-type pedal. - MIDI In – 5 pin DIN connectors
- MIDI Out – 5 pin DIN connectors
- USB – type B connector for USB MIDI, Software Update and Sound Transfer
- Power Cord with IEC C14 connector
Dimensions
- Nord Stage 4 88:
1282 mm (50.5″), 121 mm (4.7″), 349 mm (13.7″) - Nord Stage 4 73:
1069 mm (42″), 121 mm (4.7″), 349 mm (13.7″) - Nord Stage 4 Compact:
1066 mm (42″), 104 mm (4,1″), 322 mm (12.7″)
Mapex Saturn Aqua Fade
- Sizes 10, 12, 16, 22
- Black Panther maple snare. (not included with the kit)
Paiste Cymbals
602 Modern Essential
- Paiste 14″ hat
- Paiste 20″ Full Ride signature.
- Paiste 17 Signature fast.
- Paiste 19″ Signature full.