Rauw Alejandro’s Saturno Tour
In-the-round design compliments futuristic fashion, pounding dembow beats and an epic alien abduction.
Puerto Rican artist Rauw Alejandro is on a victory lap with his current world tour. He’s already taken the Latin world by storm and now, fresh off an engagement and collab EP with Spanish alt-pop singer Rosalía, he’s earning name recognition with non-Spanish speakers. His infectious beats, undeniable charisma and dancing chops need no translation.
The Saturno tour and album of the same name put Rauw’s talent for world-building front and center. Skits and interludes from the album are integrated into the concert, threading a plotline where he’s lost in a galaxy filled with vaporwave visuals that give a heavy nod to the futurism of the 80s and 90s. The live show is the natural extension of that aesthetic and sonic identity: Miami bass, vibrant colors, holographic aliens, a galactic stage design and precise choreography coming together to tell a cohesive story.
The highly automated, in-the-round tour design feels like an immersive outer space experience and allows the crowd to orbit Rauw, feeding further into the planetary theme. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. Rauw is outfitted in a wardrobe by Acne Studios, and his audience is just as infused with retro futuristic style. The specificity of the looks goes beyond the well-known subgenre tropes (i.e., wearing black at a metal show or candy at a massive rave). Almost everyone is dressed in sapphire blue and silver metallic outfits, many also donning dupes of Rauw’s vintage silver OVERTHETOP Oakley sunglasses. The Tour’s Creative Director, Adrian Martinez, explains, “It’s become almost an unspoken rule to show up dressed in a certain way. With the Latin tours specifically, we are seeing fans building community and immersing beyond the show on the stage.”
It’s a community Martinez knows well. He creative directed content on Bad Bunny’s 2022 World’s Hottest Tour, and much of the core team on Saturno have worked with other reggaeton artists including Ozuna and Wisin & Yandel, creating a closeness and shared history on the road.
“Rauw was sharing video treatments with me and showing music videos to me before they came out —every bit and piece that he could creatively he was letting me in on,” explained Martinez. “I understood the background and the inspiration for the tour fully. You don't always get to go that deep with every artist. He let us in, and he knew exactly what his story was. That made it easier for us to create something authentic.”
The Latin Mainstream Explosion
Since the Latin music explosion of 1999, which saw artists like Ricky Martin, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias successfully enter the American mainstream, countless trailblazing artists have shaped the contemporary Latin music industry.
Today, regional genres like dembow and reggaeton are a huge influence in the Latin pop and hip-hop dominating North America. Artists like Rauw Alejandro, J Balvin, Maluma and Bad Bunny are not only leading the charts, but also packing stadium and arena-sized audiences on their world tours. Eric Duars Pérez, Rauw Alejandro’s manager, credits some of that growth to the rise in music streaming.
“The platforms like Apple, Spotify and YouTube allow people to jump around from genres and the algorithms lead you to discover new music. Maybe you go from Kendrick Lamar to Ozuna or Karol G,” said Pérez . “These are great platforms for promoting the music and growing an audience.”
The Saturno World Tour
Alejandro’s 2023 Saturno World Tour kicked off in February in the Dominican Republic, followed by dates in Puerto Rico, the United States, and Canada. The tour then continued into Mexico and Central America. It will continue through Europe this summer and finally South America in the fall.
PRG helped set the tour up for success, providing engineering services to make the ambitious design from Sturdy, where Martinez is Creative Director, tourable, along with crew and equipment for lighting, rigging, cameras, LED, video and automation (via SPGS) for the North American dates. “Something that the team was looking for when it came to searching for its production partners was keeping everything in one house,” explained Alex Soto, who shares the tour Production Manager role with Omar Rodriguez. “PRG is one of the few companies that can do it all.”
Martinez worked closely with Lighting Designer Marcus Jessup of MJL Visions on the overall design. Circles and slight asymmetry were contrasting shapes and rhythms they played with in their design and programming. The most immediately impressive visual component of the build is the circular LED structure, which sits in the middle of the arena. Five automated lighting pods that resemble small UFOs surround the center stage, dipping and spinning throughout the show.
Rigging and Automation
Due to the number of flown elements, rigging was the biggest challenge with the tour design. “The very first thing we needed to attack was the weight,” explains PRG Account Executive Anthony Ciampa, who handled the technical tour planning and the overall scope of equipment. “Just the size of this rig made being able to play the venues on their schedule challenging.”
Ciampa immediately involved his CAD team, who developed preliminary concepts. Next, the rigging department completed a weight study based on the specified products. The original design came in at 230,000 lbs.; the final for touring, 160,000 lbs., just at the A-market arena limit.
The rigging order included 28 automation axis points comprised of five automated lighting pods, a 48” lighting halo, a winch for the alien abduction flying gag, 2 standard hoist points per megatruss, and 5 x 70 ft sticks of megatruss each held by 2-ton hoists. The order also included over 300 feet of cable bridges and 150,000 feet of cabling.
Due to equipment shortages, Ciampa reached beyond PRG and enlisted SGPS to provide an automation system and crew to operate it.
LED, Cameras & Video Content
The cylindrical LED structure used 470 tiles of 9mm WinVision Air, for a semi-transparent effect, adding another layer of interest to the content. Sturdy’s content design utilizes a UV mapping technique to synch the live content with the 3D visuals, making for dynamic and interactive live effects on the screen. The circular structure gives a unique, unrepeated view from every vantage point.
The camera order included 7 Grass Valley LDX-80 cameras with Fujinon HD Telephoto lenses and 4 Panasonic PTZ Robocams along with a switcher system, power and distro.
Lighting
The lighting order included more than 500 fixtures including GLP JDC1s, VL 2600s, Martin Mac Auras, GLP Impression X4-bars and washes, plus eight converted BMFL spots with GroundControl® Followspot systems in four areas.
Jaycob Luque at MJL Visions handled the programming, while Jessup focused on the design. Jessup’s go-to for the automated pods were the new VL 3600 Profiles due to factors such as maintenance and availability. They proved to be a great fit, providing superb brightness.
"I wanted to give the feeling of a UFO abduction. I imagine that being very bright and disorienting," he explained. “So, these exceptionally bright and punchy lighting fixtures on the pods became a priority.” The design also included GLP Impression X-Bars on the stage border. He used these to highlight the dynamic perspectives and views from different sides of the arena, which created diverse experiences for each audience member based on their location.
The blow through LED on the main circular LED structure allowed Jessup to play with the lighting elements in more interactive ways. “Sometimes we shoot light out through the video wall. I enjoy the transparency of the screen in those moments because, even for the people who are on the floor looking up, it really does look like a spaceship,” he said.
Crew
For the North American run, much of the PRG crew was American, working with an international production team. Stage Manager Ronny Garcia, who is Venezuelan, found that the cultural differences ended up meshing very well. “The American crew has this very defined way of doing things, while our team is more flexible in how the work is done,” explained Garcia. “We struck a balance together with a lot of respect from both sides.”
With the support of PRG, the crew, and a team of dedicated professionals, the Saturno tour continues to captivate audiences around the world, solidifying Rauw Alejandro’s position as a rising international pop star.
North American Tour Credits
Executive Producer: Eric Pérez
Creative Director: Adrian Martinez, Sturdy
Lighting Designer: Marcus Jessup, MJL Visions
Lighting Programmer: Jaycob Luque, MJL Visions
Lighting Director: Alex Soto Jr.
Content: Sturdy
Production Management: Omar Rodriguez and Alex Soto
Stage Manager: Ronny Garcia
Video Director: Sean Lee
Choreography: FeFe Burgos and Denise Yuri-Disla
PRG Account Executive: Anthony Ciampa
PRG Rigging PM: Eric Chabira
PRG PM: Manuel Loayza
PRG PM: Luke Lewis
PRG PM: Scott Reiter
Rigging
Head Rigger: John Kehoe
Rigger: Thomas Cusimano
Rigger: Alexander Ritter
Rigger: Marquis Walker
Lighting
Crew Chief: Hodgie Vierna
FOH Tech: Patrick Warrington
Dimmer Tech: Brad Billions
Moving Light Tech: Ryan Dunn
Moving Light Tech: Jordan Hadwen
Moving Light Tech: Thomas Mayer Jr.
Lighting Tech: Jennifer Kerbs
Ground Control Tech: Matthew Leroux
Dimmer Tech: Scott Naef
Climber: Charlie Boyington
Video
Crew Chief: Mason Braislin
Video Engineer: Robert Sullivan
D3 Operator: Victor Murillo
LED Lead: David Keipert
LED Tech: Arturo Alonso
LED Tech: Derrick Brininger
LED Tech: Donovan Delabruere
Camera Assist. / Utility: Christopher Decoteau
Camera Assist. / Utility: Antonio Magana
Camera Assist. / Utility: Gabriel Varela