“Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Martin Viper XIP,” said a wise production company owner.
Yours & Owls Festival is a major music and arts festival held annually in Wollongong, NSW, and this year it was run over the October long weekend. Held outdoors at Flagstaff Hill along the Wollongong foreshore, it’s a stunning location.
The 2026 acts included BBNO$, G Flip, PNAU, DMA’S, Ball Park Music, Genesis Owusu, Hiatus Kaiyote, Luude, Middle Kids, Tkay Maidza, 1TBSP, C.Frim, Cosmo’s Midnight, Fanny Lumsden.
ei Productions has handled lighting production for Yours & Owls for many years and has seen it evolve into a great festival. However, the coastal location in spring means bad weather is always a possibility, and this year’s edition certainly had it, with a huge storm front moving across the site during the show.
On Saturday afternoon, the festival briefly paused, and attendees were urged to seek shelter because of a sudden thunderstorm. Organisers temporarily halted the music and instructed the crowd to take cover under designated on-site shelter structures and tents or in nearby venues. The evacuation/shelter-in-place order was temporary, and performances resumed shortly after the storm passed without major cancellations.
Fortunately, ei Productions had just purchased another twenty Martin MAC Viper XIP fixtures, which are ideal for outdoor festivals; they are IP54-rated with Martin’s smart XIP weatherproofing technology, making them safe for outdoor use in rain or extreme conditions without needing bulky sealed enclosures.
“Since our initial purchase of twenty MAC Viper XIP and quickly adding another twenty, the Martin Viper XIP has become one of our workhorse fixtures,” commented Neale Mace, Managing Director of ei Productions. “We do love Martin here, and ever since seeing one of these units in a pre-production model, I thought it’d be a great success -especially with the Viper name on it! Now, they’re all over local and international specs.”
Neale describes the MAC Viper XIP as a great-looking fixture with amazing output, colours, and effects, and the IP rating is the ‘cherry on top’.
“The MAC Viper is insanely bright and has a very good dimming curve,” he added “The zoom range is great, and the colour changes are very fast.
“We put twenty units on the Main Stage flown rig initial design, and all acts were very happy with them. We were also happy to know that, during the event, we could rest easy knowing that any weather thrown at them wouldn’t be a problem.”
The team also used another twenty MAC Viper XIPs for floor packages for bbno$ and G-Flip, and Neale remarked that a non-IP fixture would’ve had issues during the performances because of the heavy rain.
Lead photo: Yours & Owls
Production Photos: Michael Sawers Spotlight Report
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