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Royal birthday parties in Brunei

The scale and luxury of the parties thrown by the Royal Family of Brunei are internationally reknowned.

In the summer of 1994 I was asked by Vari-lite Europe to work as a technician on such an event.

After a brief postponement the show doubled in length and became not just one party, but two. The first was for HRH Princess Hamidah, who was celebrating her seventeenth birthday. It would feature two consecutive nightly performances by Bobby Brown, with a special guest appearance by Shanice Williams.

 

I honestly don't remember exactly what the Vari-lite system was for this show, but it numbered in the high tens and consisted of VL2Cs, VL4s and VL5s. Conventional lighting, technical and crewing services were provided by companies from Singapore and Thailand.

 

The Lighting Designer for the first event was Dave Hill, a well-known face in the world of rock 'n' roll lighting, whose recent work includes the last two or three Rolling Stones world tours.

After these shows (and four or five very nice days off, lounging by the hotel swimming pool) we began to rig for the second event. This was for the twenty-first birthday of HRH Prince Abdul Hakim and consisted of two nightly performances by Sir Elton John, with guest appearances by Bryan Adams and Barry White.

The lighting for the second event was a three truss rig, with about the same size Vari-lite system, designed and operated by Canadian Lighting Designer,
Sean Richardson.

©2001-2005 Nick Cooke