The backstage artist's bar was also housed in an Arena structure, which was busy throughout the weekend with artists and production crew alike watching the action on stage through plasmas which displayed a live feed from the main stage, and catching the action from the weekend's football matches. Commercial manager Rory O'Neil explained: "This event gave us the chance to show that Arena Structures is about more than just sporting events and exhibitions, and that we have a much broader skill base than that. It showed that we can adapt to the needs of production and creative companies involved in a festival - and interact with all the different clients on site to bring their ideas to fruition."
Three structures were used for the Virgin Hospitality areas, including a 15m x 20m structure in which Virgin's guests were entertained behind the main stage, and two auxiliary catering areas where food was prepared for the guests. In addition to these, Arena provided another 23 structures to the site, including 8 first aid areas, artist and crew catering, wristband exchange, and creating a studio for Channel 4 from which the E4 presenters broadcast their live programmes through the festival weekend.
(Lee Baldock)
