FX Rentals behind the decks at Prince's Trust Urban Music Festival

FX Rentals has announced its involvement in the first ever Prince's Trust Urban Music Festival, a hugely successful two-day event held at London's Earls Court in May.
FX sponsored the Turntable Academy DJ workshop, providing a 32-channel Mackie console, 30 Technics SL1210 Mk II turntables, 15 Pioneer DJM 500 and 600 DJ mixers, 30 pairs of headphones and a PA system of four Mackie SRM 450 self powered speakers with two HZ PB400 sub bass units. Here, wanna-be DJs as young as eight years old were able to try out their skills on the decks, assisted by DJs including The Mixologists and DJ Yoda.
FX was hired by Contenda, which produced the Official Guide to the Event and sourced brand partners to get involved with component parts of the event. "We selected FX to get involved because having worked with the company, and especially marketing director Tony Andrews in the past, we've always found them to be efficient, reliable and very hard-working," says Contenda director Joe Pidgeon. "The DJ workshop was very well received with a constant flow of people wanting to be involved. The service provided by FX for the DJ Workshop area of the Princes Trust Urban Music Festival was as usual exemplary, all kit supplied were excellent and the staff and the service they provided fantastic.
The DJ Workshop was the vision of new company D-Pat. "Our proposal was to have 15 sets of decks available for people to walk up to and have a play on," says the company's James Fornara or DJ Dub, aka Jim'll Mix It. "Our tutors were on hand to offer advice about all DJ skill areas from the basic to the more advanced. These sessions were run with the aim of signing up people for the three one-hour skill sessions run later in the day.
"It was a huge success; we worked with over 200 young people over the course of the weekend and everyone involved was very positive about our work."
More than 30,000 people attended the two-day festival, which brought together the biggest stars of the UK and US urban scene. Artists including Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Dizzee Rascal, Lemar, The Streets and Jamelia took to the stage for breathtaking performances. Other areas included a festival battle stage hosted by Red Bull for MCs, beatboxing, music producers and unsigned talent; interactive zones including the Umbro Indoor Football Zone, Chill Out Zone and Gaming Zone; an Urban Market showcasing everything from fashion to record labels and including businesses helped by The Prince's Trust, and the Tizer Urban Art Zone featuring top urban artists. Coincidentally FX was involved in another royal event in London that weekend, providing a small, high quality PA system for a performance by opera singer Summer who has a chart-topping eponymous album on Sony Classical. Summer is a frequent client of FX, which supplies her with PA systems and operator Chris Love for her performances, which include royal events in aid of such causes as the Wellbeing Charity and Children in Crisis.
(GB)