And So It Goes On

Coming back from Paris straight to work. Taking back the Byblos Festival rhythm.
We welcomed back Yanni and his crew this year. Awesome people to work with. Learned a lot from them this year as I did last year.
The concert was amazing as expected.

  

 

Then Massive Attack dropped in. Wow. The concert was mind blowing, maybe a bit more on a personal note. The messages, music, involvement of the artist…

  

 

 

The crew was also superb. Took the load out a step further organizing the boxes in the truck, because of a massive load of equipment for that gig. The interns learned a lot too, on stage and in the pit with the crowd.
Even with a few setbacks, we managed to pull it off. The band was down to earth, and even opened up the backstage to some fans, taking pictures, giving autographs and lots of memories to be shared down the line. They opened up their backstage area to the volunteers of the palestinian camps which they visited the day before.

I have been looking at options to get out of Lebanon and explore more, as the situation here doesn’t help the industry and puts out a lot of limits on our jobs.

Next up tonight: Epica.

But a small whisper on the side… a new resolution I have to make sure I keep: draw more.
Always (almost) did it for myself, and that should return.

Summer Is Busy

Finished at the beginning of this summer the last batch of kids’ illustrations for Eduvation.
But to continue in the design line of work, I can finally reveal what I’ve been working on for a few months, with a team of young dedicated partners.

We have launched the first surprise with torment, stress, fights, but also fun, love and dedication… it’s finally out: RUBIK.

The work could be hard and frustrating, but it’s also exciting and normal in order to have a result in the end.
I shifted the logo, with the help of the team and Tina, from a Chameleon to only a symbolic head.

 

All in all, we hope to see you at Rubik. We got Gunther on board as a resident, and the other partners are dedicated young people. I’m getting my staff on board, most of them are good friends. Rubik will be good.

As for the other surprise, I’m getting closer to revealing it to you, bit by bit. No teaser, no anything. When the time is right, you’ll get to see what I’ve been preparing for the last year or so.

Apart from that, team has changed for Byblos this year. We got some setbacks as we’ve been prepping, but got all the work up to speed in these last two days. Delta Sound, Rob to be exact, was a great help. In addition to Ryan and Zaid of course, from JK58. The line up is amazing as I’ve certainly said before: it’s gonna be an exciting festival, yet again.

The rhythm will be so fast this upcoming month:
July 3rd: Byblos Festival opening with Lang Lang
July 4th: Rubik’s launch party
July 5th – 15th: In Paris working  on the Zuhair Murad Paris Fashion Show production.
July 16th – August 19th: back on Byblos Festival with the remaining of the acts: Marcel Khalife, Yanni, Massive Attack, Epica, Stromae, Mulatu Astake, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Beirut.
July until September: pop up dates for Rubik.
August 20 to 23rd: 4 a Cause‘s cooking something for you.
And hopefully sometime between August and September: that second surprise will be able to stand on its own two feet.

Music, fashion, charity, but all in all, same goal: get the job done.

Loop The Summer

Last week I got a call from my old boss, JC, to work on Byblos Festival‘s production again with the Buzz team. And of course, I can’t turn that down. The team is nice and the line up is amazing: Beirut, Massive Attack, Stromae, Lang Lang, Yanni (coming back this year – one of the coolest crews I worked with, so can’t wait to see them again), Epica, Marcel Khalifé, Mulatu Astatke, Ibrahim Maalouf and Guy Manoukian.
Delta Sound are on the job again too, and I got Edith and Georgy on it this time as my help with Savio and Roy. July and August will be good.

But first thing first, I’m finishing up the last deal I’ve got with Eduvation schools for the kids’ illustrations this month. And finalizing some details on my surprise projects I’ve been keeping from you for so long.

And here’s a small reminder of 4 a Cause‘s two years anniversary we had with a lot of our supporters and generous artists at B018.

Pet Shop Boys and One Republic – Hell Of a Weekend

After we were done with Yanni, Nightwish and Lana Del Rey… I had to prepare for a hardcore weekend: Pet Shop Boys on Saturday and One Republic on Sunday.
Setting up on Friday late at night with the light and laser designers for Pet Shop Boys was inspiring. Looking at them move and study every angle and position of their equipment, to build that detailed mind blowing visual show. I was expecting a great show, but never have I imagined I would say: this was the best concert I’ve seen.

Saturday had an aged-varied crowd, from those people who knew them from the 50s to those youngsters who recognize quality music. Videos, dancers, lasers, effects were off the hook… I’ve enjoyed it to the MAX.
De-rigging was hard, we finished late. Took the crew out for a few drinks. Then took three of them to Beirut to experience The Gärten and what everyone meant by Beirut Night Life. The night (and dawn) was amazing. The people at The Gärten thought the young people with me were the Pet Shop Boys (3 25-year-old mistaken for 2 50-year-old… oh but well) so drinks and girls were coming in left and right.
They made me promise we’ll have breakfast the next day (or just in 3 hours). So we had that crazy plan to wake up to.
Pet Shop crew, you’re brothers at heart!

  

One Republic arrived the same day (after a 20 minute nap on site). To my surprise they were just a team of 5 people at most. Coming in, setting up on the same day. I witnessed a bit of a resemblance with Lana Del Rey’s fan crowd at the entrance.
Soundcheking a few hours before (and making the crowd at the doors scream as they made their way through in a simple modest cab).
I thought the concert wasn’t gonna be great. I was wrong.

 

The guys were awesome on stage, the lead singer is one hell of an entertainer. Running around everywhere, jumping on the rigs, going down to the crowd… I was really wrong. Their songs stuck to my head and they amazed me with their incredible covers of some popular songs like Gold Digger and Seven Nation Army. Good show, pleased audience.

 

To Remember By, Yanni & Nightwish

With Yanni, I got offered Charlie Adam’s drumsticks.

After that, the work was just kicking in smoothly… The festival is easy, as it is prepared before hand and has been done so many years that the people around know what they’re doing.

Just making sure everyone is on schedule and everyone is doing their jobs and happy is a piece of cake on this one.
You get to enjoy meeting new people a bit more than the other usual jobs.
Nightwish were a funny, nice, chilled bunch…

Got a little gift from the crew to add to my Pic collection started out this year. Usual gift they leave behind to the people working the gigs.

Coming up next… Lana Del Rey. Met with her personal security yesterday. Always nice to see a smiling face comforted by what you’re telling them as soon as they arrive. This is gonna be grand.

Yanni in Byblos

We opened up Byblos International Festival with Yanni two nights ago.
He played two shows, first two nights.
The show was sold out.

The audience was blown away.
The band and crew loved the country. We loved the band and crew.
Everything went smoothly, we de-rigged with the crew last night until 2 am for them to have time for a quick shower before their flight.

Amazing people, thank you for these 2 days, it was lovely.

 

I’m on Byblos

The first night of Sunsets’ parties was amazing.
We estimated 700 will show up, and more than 1600 came on that night.
Check out the video here.

As I handed over the Sunsets‘ series to a colleague, I was given the Byblos project mainly among others.

Went to Byblos early this week to make sure that everything was on its right way for the festival.

We open on Sunday with Yanni afterall.

Following up with Nightwish (Anuryzm opening up for them), Lana Del Rey (with the Wanton Bishops opening up for her), Petshop Boys, One Republic, Rahbani, Paco de Lucia, Crazy Opera & the Scorpions!

At the same time, I’ve been asked to bartend at The Gärten by überhaus: The Gärten is an outdoor venue/club/park/awesomeness in Biel. Grass, dome and amazing chill out spaces are part of the project.

The opening was amazing, loads of fun dealing behind the bar.

After Byblos it’s full focus on bringing the first international music festival to Beirut: Creamfields!
1 Day, 3 Arenas, 20 DJs…

Check out the line up here, the EarlyBird tickets and all about this first time big international festival in Beirut!

Busy summer, less blogging, more on ground work!

Cheers all, and stay safe in this mad country!

JK58’s Summer Season

Can’t take a moment to breathe.
This is not a complaint, this is excitement.
Very few like their job, and I’m one who loves mine.

Leaving the office after 10PM on most days says we still have the drive we had at the beginning.
So this summer, we started off with the first night of our Sunsets’ series on May 11th, you can check out the video to see how it all went: Watergate 13 Beirut Release Party.
We’re coming back with the second on June 21st.

But before that, there’s the French Play: Une Envie Folle, starting on June 2nd ’till June 5th.
We’ll then hit up a big surprise with Samsung on June 7th, at Beirut City Center.

July is gonna be hectic, since we’re producing with Buzz Productions the Byblos International Festival, bringing in: Yanni, Nightwish, Ceelo Green, Lana Del Rey, Pet Shop Boys, Rahbani, Paco De Lucia, Crazy Opera and Scorpions again!

August won’t have anything special. However we won’t be resting, because JK58 will be bringing you something BIG. And BIG is an understatement.

Stay tuned for more info soon.