Sounds of the City 2026

# Sounds of the City 2026

Every summer, Manchester's Castlefield Bowl hosts **Sounds of the City**, a series of concerts set within one of the UK's most unique outdoor venues. I once again joined **Adlib** as System Engineer, continuing a role I've been fortunate to hold for the past several years.

Castlefield Bowl is a venue that presents a number of acoustic and logistical challenges. The audience area is unusually wide, the stage trim height is restricted, and the large canopy covering the seated area has a significant influence on high-frequency propagation. Delivering even coverage throughout the venue requires careful system optimisation rather than simply deploying a large PA.

## The System

For this year's shows the main PA consisted of **L-Acoustics K2** with **KS28** subwoofers providing low-frequency reinforcement. Additional **L2** loudspeakers were used for wide coverage, with further delay positions ensuring consistent SPL and tonal balance towards the rear of the audience area.

Every venue requires a different approach, and Castlefield Bowl is no exception. Prediction software provides an excellent starting point, but every show still requires detailed measurement and tuning once the system is flown. Using Smaart, the system was aligned to maintain phase coherence, tonal consistency and smooth transitions between the main hangs, out fills and delay systems.

## Working with Adlib

Working alongside the experienced Adlib team allows every day to run efficiently, from load-in through to the final show. The emphasis is always on providing visiting engineers with a system that is predictable, musical and ready to mix from the moment they arrive.

Throughout the run I was responsible for system optimisation, daily verification and ensuring the PA continued to perform consistently regardless of weather conditions or production changes between artists.

## Another Great Summer

Sounds of the City continues to be one of my favourite events of the year. Every production brings different challenges, but that's exactly what makes system engineering so rewarding. Achieving even coverage in a venue as demanding as Castlefield Bowl requires careful planning, precise measurement and attention to detail, and it's always satisfying hearing the results once the audience fills the venue.

A huge thank you to everyone at **Adlib** for another fantastic run of shows. It's always a pleasure to be part of such a talented team, and I'm already looking forward to returning next summer.