Sound, Setting, and Spontaneity: K-array at Festival of the Sun
When producer Rick Rubin brings artists together, the experience rarely follows a conventional format. The same philosophy shapes Festival of the Sun, an unconventional gathering of music, conversation, and artistic expression set across the historic villages of Tuscany’s Val d’Elsa.
For its June 20–21, 2026 edition, K-array returned as technical audio sponsor, providing multiple sound systems across five historic locations and supporting a program that continued to evolve right up to showtime.
From open-air performances in village squares to intimate conversations beneath trees and inside centuries-old architecture, the festival presented a distinctive challenge: delivering exceptional audio while preserving the character of each setting.
For K-array, it was an opportunity to put its approach to sound into practice on a project where flexibility, architectural sensitivity, and musical expression were equally important.
A Festival Without a Fixed Stage
Curated by Rick Rubin, Festival of the Sun brings together music lovers, artists, and creatives from around the world alongside the local community. Rather than publishing a conventional lineup, the festival builds its program around discovery, spontaneity, and the energy of the moment.
The 2026 edition extended across Colle di Val d’Elsa, Casole d’Elsa, Monteriggioni, and Mensano, transforming the surrounding valley into a collection of performance spaces. Artists appeared in village piazzas, gardens, open hillsides, an open-air theatre, a cathedral crypt, and a private castle.
Performances could change location, format, or timing as the festival developed. For the audio team, that meant preparing for a wide range of possibilities without knowing exactly where every moment would take place.
K-array was brought into the planning process several months ahead of the event. The objective was not to build one fixed system around a finalized schedule, but to create a versatile audio infrastructure that could adapt as the program took shape.
A Relationship Built Through Music
K-array’s involvement with Rick Rubin began through an earlier connection with Kanye West’s Sunday Service performances, where K-array systems were selected for private gatherings in Calabasas before accompanying the choir at subsequent appearances.
Rubin later recalled hearing the system during the Easter Sunday Service at Coachella in 2019 as a particularly powerful experience, describing it as the best he had ever heard Kanye sound.
That initial encounter led to a direct relationship with K-array, including a visit to the company’s headquarters in Florence. Rubin subsequently selected K-array systems for several spaces at his home in Tuscany.
When the first Festival of the Sun took place in Casole d’Elsa in 2024, K-array joined as technical audio sponsor, providing sound for the main square and church.
The collaboration continued through the 2026 edition, working alongside Sun San Production, production coordinator Noemi Di Nunzio, and Woodworm, who manage key aspects of the festival’s technical production.
One Audio System Approach, Five Distinct Environments
Rather than applying a standard festival configuration across every location, K-array approached each venue as its own acoustic environment.
A shared inventory of modular audio systems allowed the team to transport, deploy, and reconfigure equipment efficiently as the program evolved. This flexibility supported everything from intimate conversations and acoustic performances to larger outdoor concerts.
For smaller gatherings, Pinnacle column systems provided streamlined configurations for talks and intimate performances in Monteriggioni’s church gardens, beneath a tree in Mensano, in Casole d’Elsa’s open-air theatre, and inside the cathedral crypt in Colle di Val d’Elsa. The systems also supported a public talk by Jack Dorsey.
In these settings, speech intelligibility, even coverage, and a minimal physical footprint were central considerations. The audio needed to serve the audience without disrupting the historic surroundings.
Larger outdoor performances required a different approach.
Monteriggioni - Main Square
Two Dragon-KXT12 loudspeakers and two Thunder-KS4 subwoofers, powered by the Kommander amplifier line, provided the main system for performances by Jovanotti and Joep Beving. KGEAR GT12 loudspeakers handled stage monitoring.
Colle di Val d’Elsa — Piazza del Duomo
The main PA featured two vertically stacked KH7 elements per side, supported by four KS7P subwoofers per side in a cardioid configuration.
This arrangement helped control rearward low-frequency energy and limit spill toward the stage and surrounding architecture. Kommander amplifiers powered the system, while Mastiff-KM112P and KGEAR GT12 loudspeakers provided stage monitoring.
Private Castle Performance
For the castle event, the deployment used one KXT18P and two KS3 subwoofers per side, tailored to the performance space.
Across the festival, the approach remained consistent: match the audio system to the environment and the performance, rather than forcing every venue into the same configuration.
Supporting the Experience, Not the Infrastructure
Festival of the Sun asked K-array to work across a remarkable range of environments, each with its own acoustic and logistical considerations.
The company's on-site technical team managed system deployment, configuration, tuning, and troubleshooting throughout the weekend, working alongside local production and technical crews.
The result was an audio approach that could respond to the festival's changing program while respecting the architecture and atmosphere of its historic settings.
For an event curated around artistic discovery, the audio system needed to be ready for whatever happened next. K-array's modular systems, flexible deployment options, and tailored system designs made that possible across the villages of Val d’Elsa.
Watch the Festival of the Sun 2026 video
Image credits: K-array
