Three Shows, One Hot Summer: July at Full Volume

Oh, what a busy summer we’ve had! Three huge shows back‑to‑back — Bristol Sounds, Bristol Pride, and Bristol Harbour festival— made July both fantastic and brutal with this summer’s heat. These events are our signature portfolio at King Sound, and we couldn’t be more grateful to our clients for their ongoing loyalty and trust. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what made each event so cool this year:

1. BRISTOL SOUNDS (25–29  June)

Held once again at the stunning Lloyds Amphitheatre on Bristol’s Harbourside, this year marked the 11th edition of Bristol Sounds.

This is their official promo capturing the spirit and scale of the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYF97jf7QCI

And here’s a couple of our owns video capturing the great atmosphere! We’re very proud of providing top class audio, crew and stage management for this amazing event — massive thanks to the team and partners who made it happen:

• Supergrass kicked us off on June 25 with a rip‑roaring performance of their full debut album I Should Coco, celebrating its 30th anniversary — a nostalgic treat for indie‑rock fans.

• Kaiser Chiefs, true festival veterans, brought high-energy classics like I Predict A Riot and Ruby with their unmistakable stage charisma.

• Texas and The Fratellis drew strong crowds mid‑week and Saturday respectively, delivering sing-alongs and electric guitar moments that lit up the Harbourside.

• Olly Murs closed out on Sunday with an upbeat, feel-good pop set — boosted by support from Lucy Spraggan— leaving everyone dancing and smiling.

The mix of iconic headliners, from 90s indie with Supergrass and Fratellis to pop charisma with Olly Murs, truly catered to all tastes. The Harbourside venue, combined with well‑organised logistics — dedicated wristbands, staggered door times, and accessible transport — made it a seamless experience. Food trucks, vibrant support acts, and that unmistakable Bristol energy sealed the vibe!

2. PRIDE 2025 (12 July)

Pride remains one of the true highlights of the summer for King Sound.

What sets it apart year after year is its vibrant, inclusive atmosphere — colourful stages, drag performances, and immersive art installations all come together to create a joyful celebration of diversity and unity. Add to that a dynamic mix of live music, Circus and of course Cabaret performances, and a crowd that radiates belonging and liberation.

And of course, technical finesse is key: King Sound’s staging, lighting, and PA systems ensure every act — from headline names to emerging local talent — delivers a flawless performance. We provide full technical production for the event across five stages including our 15m Orbit stage for the main arena, our XXL trailer stage on the Cabaret an Alustage truss stage on New Music and another Stagemobil LR stage on the dance area. We deployed L-Acoustics systems across all four outside stages with K2, Kara II and Kiva II all on duty. It’s a pretty big show these days with 38,000 through the gate and one in, one out queuing to access the 25,000 capacity site most of the day.!

This year, crazy July temperatures made rigging a real challenge and we resorted to some early starts and the odd overnight shift to get everything set in time. We are on-site for 10 days for this one day show and our hard working crews really earned their money showing some super human skills to counter mother nature’s efforts to cook us all. In the end Pride day went without a hitch and this inclusive, celibrationary, quirky and very ‘Bristol’ event lived up to reputation of being a true highlight of the year.

3. BRISTOL HARBOUR FESTIVAL (18-20 July)

Our third flagship show this summer, Harbourfest, once again transformed the waterfront into a buzzing festival arena — a tradition we've proudly continued for 26 years. We now are the sole technical supplier for the event with six areas benefitting from our sound, staging and lighting production.

Highlights included:

• Eclectic line-up spanning folk, rock, electronic, and world-music acts — something fresh for every audience segment.

• Waterfront atmosphere with food vendors, craft stalls, and interactive zones giving the event a carnival-like, family-friendly charm.

• Seamless transitions between stages thanks to King Sound’s staging efficiency, which kept things flowing without the usual bottlenecks.

Despite the intense July heat, feedback was overwhelmingly positive — great atmosphere, smooth logistics, and performances that felt fresh and well-curated.

Summing up:

July felt like a marathon — packed, hot, and exhilarating. But with our trademark attention to detail, smart scheduling helped manage the heat and energy levels, technical excellence delivered crisp sound and seamless transitions, and engaging production turned each show into an unforgettable experience for both clients and audiences.

All of this was made possible by our incredible crew and, above all, by the continued partnership and confidence of our clients. Here’s to many more summers like this one — though maybe a little cooler next time!

Need pro audio, staging, lighting or festival support? King Sound Reinforcement are one of the few companies around with the capabilities to help. We specialise in being a ‘one stop shop’ for multi stage events — with a vast array of equipment to call on, our own transport fleet and decades of experience. We’ve proven time and time again we can do it!

Get in touch: kingsr.com – or drop us a line via Instagram @kingsoundreinforcement.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! King Highlights - 2022

Here at King Sound, we’ve had a fantastic, fruitful and very busy year but we made it through and enjoyed every part of the challenge.

We provided audio, lighting, stage management and crews for the multiple shows with the audio package featuring our brand new L-Acoustics K2 system. We’ve maintained our relationships with many long term clients as they’ve recovered from the lost Covid years. Our Orbit festival stage has been very busy with our Layher upgrades being well received by all.

We’ve also taken on more full time staff, upgraded our vans to EU6 standard and launched our dry hire website, which has brought many new customers. Its been a high tempo period but its been great!

A little 'thank you' gift this Christmas for our clients

As we cruise towards the end of ‘22 and enjoy the festive period, we’d like to pause and say a heartfelt thanks to all our customers and friends for their continued faith in our fiercely independent and proudly Bristolian company as our growth continues.

New StageMobil XXL stage — just in time for Christmas!

Great news for King Sound just in time for Christmas! We’ve wrapping up 2022 with another big purchase to upgrade our hire equipment stock. Meet our brand new StageMobil XXL mobile stage!

We’ve recently placed an order and expect it to arrive in time spring. We are taking bookings now for Summer ‘23 and beyond!

Stagemobil exclusively specialises in mobile event systems and have been leaders in in the field since 1997. We’re always looking to expand our staging portfolio and, having hired in one of these excellent units for many events in 2022, we have taken the decision to invest in our own.

Why it’s particularly special?

Well, conventional stage systems are familiar to most people. Typically, they require a great deal of time and energy to build, not so with Stagemobil — the principal difference is that this stage can be towed to site then constructed within 30 minutes, with a maximum of 2 people involved in the process.

This extremely short set-up time helps to significantly save the costs whereas simple handling saves the additional use of on site plant and minimises background noise during assembly and dismantling.

With 10 m x 6 m of stage area and a clearance of 4.60 m, the XXL Mobile Staging creates an impressive space for imposing and sophisticated stage design. Due to the extensibility with side wings for rigging PA or branding, this mobile stage generates a genuine rock ‘n‘ roll feeling at any festival!

The weight of the mobile platform (3500 kg) eliminates the need for additional ballasting which is another nice bonus when it comes to impact on-site, cutting transport requirements and boosting sustainability. Despite its impressive size it can be operated quickly and easily – disassembly is as quick as set-up so, once any technical equipment is removed, a clear site can be only minutes away!

This stage is perfect for bands, festivals and events where a quick set-up is needed. With the sound wings on the XXL stage you can fly 500KG of audio per side.

QUICK FACTS:

• Dimensions (as the trailer):  L 11,70 m x W 2,54 m x H 3,95 m

• Dimensions (as the stage):  W 10 m x D 6,10 m x H 6,30 m x Clearance H 4,60 m

• Height of stage floor: 1,20 — 1,40 m

• Floor capacity: 350 kg/m2

• Roof capacity: 1.050 kg

Come check it out, we’re confident it will be one of our most popular stages. Of course we are also able to equip the stage with high end sound and lighting options and provide any crew needed to deliver your next event.

Happy Holidays and see you at hire.kingsr.com soon!

SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS: Bristol Sounds, Pride and Harbourfest - Part I

Summer ‘22 - so far, so good!

Here at King Sound, we’ve had a fantastic, busy, crazy summer but we made it through and enjoyed every part of the challenge.

We’ve still have August fully booked ahead of us but thought we’d share with you a few summer summer highlights so far.

If you’ve missed ‘‘Summer Highlights - Part II’’, click here to read about our busy summer.

BRISTOL SOUNDS — 22-27 June.

Bringing a diverse bill of live music to the heart of the city, the open-air summer concert series is one of the Bristol’s iconic shows and being our home town gig we were thrilled to be asked back for the seventh year running by promoters Crosstown Concerts.

Following a two-year hiatus, Bristol Sounds marked its return to the city’s much-loved harbourside with an expanded schedule of headliners over the 6 night run of shows: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The War on Drugs, Elbow, Jungle, First Aid Kit and Paolo Nutini all graced the stage at Amphitheatre to sell out audiences and great acclaim. We provided audio, stage management and crew for the shows with the audio package featuring our new L-Acoustics K2 system (which was greatly appreciated by all the visiting engineers) and Digico SD12 consoles. 6 days of early starts and late nights took its toll on our crew, but they remained rock solid though out.

SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS: Bristol Sounds, Pride and Harbourfest - Part II

Next stop was BRISTOL PRIDE — 9 July.

Not only one of the UK’s largest Pride events, but one of Bristol’s largest festivals, Pride is something we’ve been closely involved with since the beginning. Returning to the Bristol Downs after a Covid enforced break Bristol Pride was back - bigger, bolder and glitzier than ever before!

If you’ve missed ‘‘Summer Highlights - Part I’’, click here to read about our busy summer.

Perhaps our biggest full production gig of the year, we provided sound, lights, crew and staging over the whole site with kit spread across the five performance stages. The main stage, which was headlined by the fantastic Carly Ray Jepson, featured our 15M Orbit stage and a full-on festival sound and lighting system featuring our new L-Acoustics K2 system, Grand MA3 lighting console and Digico audio desks. All other stages enjoyed technical upgrades which kept the crowds dancing, laughing and having fun all day long. Site wide we proved over 150 boxes of PA, mostly L-Acoustics, over 300 square metres of staging and many dozens of lighting fixtures all from our extensive stocks of equipment. The build, break and 1 day show took up 8 full days and we employed around 40 people to help our full time staff produce the event.

And finally HARBOURFEST — 15 - 17 July (50th anniversary this year!)

The festival attracts over 250,000 visitors to enjoy over 120 hours of entertainment, across seven stages from spoken word to the latest Bristol musical talent, local dance performers, world class circus and on-water activity.

Each area of the one mile long festival was carefully developed by the Bristol Harbour Festival programmers Cirque Bijou, Thekla, Trinity Community Arts, Tony Benjamin, My Future My Choice, Rebecca Tantony, Grain Barge, Brunel's ss Great Britain and Jelli Records. A fleet of feature vessels was staying in the harbour as well as over 300 visiting boats, yachts and ships. 

Welcome to the Team!

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King Sound Reinforcement would like to welcome Phil Round as the newest member of the Team. Phil, having just returned from a 2 year stint working for a large AV company in New Zealand, contacted us shortly after moving to Bristol looking to get involved.

His CV looked good and we liked his ‘can do’ attitude. He initially worked for us a crew member on technical and non-technical assignments and the more we saw of him, the more impressed we were. Mindful that good people get snapped up quickly in this industry we invited him to apply for a full time job Live Event Production Manager with a focus on audio.

Phil’s calm attitude, friendly manner and solid technical ability are a great fit and he’s quickly settled in to the King team. Expect to see him operating shows, designing systems and advancing jobs with clients.

Managing Director Paul King says: ‘I am well known for being extremely picky about who we employ, especially in our sound department. The fact I hunted Phil down and offered him a job tells you all you need to know about my regard for Mr Round’s abilities!’

Phil, immediately took the sound department under his wing and got stuck in prepping shows and building racks.