The lights don't hang themselves.
Words by STRUKT
Photo: Aleksandr Popov, Unsplash
STRUKT takes festivals and club nights apart, piece by piece, so everyone who built them gets credited. It starts in Vancouver, because that's home. It's for everyone, everywhere.
Think about the last show that stopped you mid-sentence. You probably know who was playing. You probably don't know who made that moment.
The room went dark, one beam cut through the haze, and the drop landed exactly when the lights did. Somebody climbed the truss at nine in the morning to hang that light. Somebody programmed that cue at two the night before, then programmed it again.
Somebody built the booth, painted the backdrop, designed the flyer that made you buy the ticket, and pulled cables out of the rain at four, long after you went home. Their names were never on the poster.
STRUKT exists to put them there.
Why here
Vancouver loves a big night. When the right name comes through, tickets go in minutes and the whole city shows up. Then the tour leaves, and the feeling leaves with it.
Across Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the rest of BC, the people who could build something every weekend are already here. The kid learning a lighting console on a borrowed laptop. The painter with nowhere to show. The designer, the rigger, the one who knows how to make an empty room feel like somewhere.
They're scattered, working alone, waiting for a reason to find each other. We want to give them a place to be seen, so they can find each other, and so the next great night is built here, by people from here.
Why STRUKT
STRUKT comes from structure. Every festival and every club night is built from parts: the sound, the light, the stage, the site, the door, the bar, the people keeping everyone safe.
We take the night apart, piece by piece, the way you'd take apart a machine to see how it works. Then we credit every person behind every piece.
The sound
Sound engineers tune the room until every low end hits right.
The light
Lighting designers program every cue you feel before you see it.
The stage
Stage managers call every changeover and keep the night on time.
The site
Riggers and site crews build it out of an empty warehouse or field.
The door
Door staff decide how the night feels from the first second.
The bar
Bar staff keep a full room going until close.
The safety
Medics and safety crews make sure everyone gets home.
The booth
The DJ. The one name that's already on the poster.
The story
Photographers, writers and designers make sure the night is remembered.
The boss
Promoters and producers who bet on the night before a single ticket sold.
The floor
You. The crowd finishes it.
A scene isn't a lineup. It's the people who keep showing up between lineups.STRUKT, Issue 00 Photo: Kajetan Sumila, Unsplash
Who it's for: everyone behind the structure
- Lighting designers
- Riggers
- Sound engineers
- Stage managers
- VJs
- Visual artists
- Set builders
- Photographers
- Fashion designers
- Pop-up makers
- Flyer designers
- Promoters
- Door staff
- The one who drove the van
- DJs
DJs too.
But we'll ask them about the crew, the timings and the six a.m. load-outs, not just the music.
If you've ever made a night happen and gone uncredited, this is for you. If you're just starting and nobody has seen your work yet, this is especially for you.
How it works
Every week, we sit down with someone who builds the night. Some come from Vancouver's underground. Some have lit stages on the other side of the world. We put them side by side on purpose, because that's where they belong.
Every night we cover gets a credits card. Everyone who worked it gets named and tagged. No exceptions, and never just "and crew."
Going everywhere
STRUKT starts in Vancouver because that's where we are. It doesn't stop there. A rigger in Lagos, a lighting designer in Berlin and a set painter in Abbotsford do the same job, work the same hours and go just as unseen.
We want them in one place, learning from each other.
From the floor
Stand-in photos from Unsplash until our own shoots begin. Every photographer is credited.
Our logo is made of hundreds of small dots. You'd never notice any single one. Take them away, and there's nothing left to read. That's the scene. That's you.
Welcome to STRUKT. Let's build something.