GLASTONBURY
for the Pyramid Stage. Prior to the opening day, an additional 18-person
Showforce crew, chief and forklift driver ensured that the stage was
prepared for headliner Stormzy’s performance on Friday.
A team of more than 30 crew, three forklift drivers and a crew chief
worked through the night on Friday and Saturday, removing all the previous
headliner’s kit and preparing the stage for the next day’s performances,
including Saturday and Sunday’s headline acts: The Killers and The Cure.
Given the number of acts performing and the tight turnaround time
between each, the backstage area was heavily congested with kit. At any
one time there was an act leaving the stage, a new act going on and the
following artist loading in.
It was vital that ever y performance began on time as there were
financial implications if they didn’t. The average time allowed for a
changeover is eight minutes with no margin for error; this was the case
following Kylie Minogue’s performance – there was a lot of kit involved
and it needed to be changed over quickly for Sir David Attenborough’s
appearance. The Showforce crew was able to turn it around in an
impressive six minutes.
Showforce also provided eight follow spot operators for each of the
show days; four were situated at FOH and 18m high, and the other four
operated from under the stage.THE OTHER
A short walk around the corner, Glastonbur y’s second stage offered an
intriguing line-up throughout the weekend with headliners Tame Impala,Chemical Brothers and Christine and the Queens all transforming the
stage into their own unique worlds. Not only that, but The Other Stage was
home to one of the most viral moments of the festival when Dave gave
one unexpecting bucket hat-wearing reveller – now known to the world
simply as Alex – a chance to perform with him on stage, a production also
designed by Routledge and Tawbox.
Providing rear and IMAG house screens was Transition Video. Speaking
about the experience, company Director Rhodri Shaw said: “Video
technology has come a long way, even in the past two years. With this in
mind, we suggested to the festival that we should upgrade the screens on
the Other Stage to ROE CB5s – matching the product on the main stage.
It’s almost double the resolution and you can really tell the difference.”
Transition also provided Barco e2 to deal with incoming touring artists.
Providing the camera package and its own OB truck was Video Europe.
The company supplied two of its highest-spec, state-of-the-art, outside
broadcast trucks for the festival along with seven Sony HDC-4300 cameras
and 18 crew trucks. The OB5 and OB7 were the workhorses behind
Glastonbur y’s most visited stages, the Pyramid Stage and Other Stage.
“Thanks really have to go to Laurence Delany, who created the team of
suppliers and crew for this one,” commented Shaw. “He’s brought in a great
group of people, many of whom have done several stints at Glastonbur y.”
On the Saturday night, The Other stage underwent quite the
transformation, as The Chemical Brothers landed to bring their visually
stimulated and content-heavy show. This presented an interesting
challenge for the stage crew, who removed the house screen and replacedSerious Stages Senior Project Manager, Simon Fursman; Avolites’ Koy Neminathan & Francesca Parry; The Transition Video team; Universal Pixel’s Roly Oliver.