Weddings · Buckinghamshire, UK
Eksimran & Dilraj's Sangeet at the Malhi Residence
Malhi Residence · Buckinghamshire, UK
A marquee in the garden, and a family who wanted a concert in it. For Eksimran and Dilraj's sangeet, Khan Saab was flown over from India to sing, so we built the marquee round him: tiered seating on both sides of the floor so every guest had a proper view of the Sufi set, and a rig of sound, light and screens you would expect at an arena rather than at home. Then the last song finished, DJ H and Jas Johal took the decks, the dhol drumline came through, and the auditorium turned into a party.
Mehndi & sangeet
Occasion
Khan Saab, from India
Live
DJ H · Jas Johal
DJs
Tiered auditorium seating
Built
On film
Watch the night
The marquee
A marquee, transformed
From the lawn it was a marquee. Inside, by the time the guests came down the railed walkway, it had red and gold drapes across the roof, a truss carrying the lights and the speakers, a stage framed by carved arches and screens, and a dancefloor with seating stepped up on either side of it. That is the frame on this page with nobody in it yet, and it is the one we keep coming back to: you can read the whole night's plan in it. The seats are for listening, the floor in the middle is for later, and everything points at the stage.
The seating
An auditorium, so everyone could see
A Sufi set is a listening set. At most sangeets the live act plays to a crowd standing round the edge of the floor, and half the room spends an hour looking at the backs of heads. This one was treated as a performance, so we built tiered seating around the dancefloor, rows rising away from the stage on both sides, and left the floor itself clear. We would build tiers for a seated set every time rather than ask a room to stand for an hour. Guests sat, the singing carried, and nobody had to choose between seeing and hearing.
Khan Saab
Flown over from India for the night
Khan Saab came over from India with a full band behind him: tabla, harmonium, keys, drums and a saxophone, all on one stage in front of the arches. Live Sufi music is the opposite of a DJ set to mix. Quiet instruments, a voice that goes from a whisper to full chest in a line, and a harmonium that disappears if you let it. Every instrument had its own mic and the mix was built for the seated rows, so the back tier heard the tabla as clearly as the front. For the big moments, cold spark fountains went up along the front of the stage.
Lights and screens
Lit like a concert, not a function room
The brief was a concert, so the lighting was designed like one. Moving heads and beam lights on the truss, haze to give the beams something to cut through, washes that took the room from deep red to blue to white, and LED screens set into the arches either side of the stage. The big screen in the centre carried a live camera feed of the stage, which is what lets a guest in the last row see Khan Saab's face. Later in the night the same rig went harder for the party, with CO2 jets firing over the floor.
Front of house
One desk, a band and two DJs
Line arrays were flown from the truss either side of the stage and run from a digital desk at front of house, where the engineer hears what the guests hear. A band that size wants every channel the desk has, and the changeover from the Sufi set to the DJs had to happen without the room going quiet. We would rather run the band and the decks through one system and one engineer than hand over between two crews mid-evening. That way the levels are set once and the party starts the moment the last song ends.
The party
Then the seats emptied
Once the Sufi set closed, the auditorium stopped being one. DJ H and Jas Johal took over, the dhol drumline came in, and the guests who had been sitting quietly in tiers were on the floor and up against the stage. The lighting went from concert to club, beams raking the marquee and the screen still running. Two DJs who have played together for years know how to hand a room between them, and with a line of dhol on top of the mix the energy never dropped long enough for anyone to go back to their seat.
What we delivered
- Tiered auditorium seating built around the dancefloor for the Sufi performance
- The dancefloor
- Sound for Khan Saab and his band, every instrument mic'd and mixed live
- DJ H and Jas Johal on the decks for the party
- A dhol drumline
- Concert lighting on truss: moving heads, beams, haze, CO2 jets and cold spark fountains
- LED screens in the stage arches, and a big screen with a live camera feed of the stage
- Line array sound flown from the truss, run from a digital desk at front of house
“Seat them for the Sufi. Stand them up for the dhol.”
The production behind the wedding
Wedding production at Malhi Residence
A marquee at a private home is a blank room, and this one was built into a concert venue. Kudos put tiered seating either side of the dancefloor for Khan Saab's Sufi set, then turned the same space into a party with DJ H, Jas Johal and a dhol drumline. Sound, concert lighting, LED screens with a live camera feed and the dancefloor were all part of the one production.
The gallery
On the day
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