Staged in The Forum - one of Copenhagen’s largest live music venues - over 1100 guests attended two party evenings, which re-created the spirit of the legendary Parisian music hall. The show, which featured many different European artists, was a spectacular combination of contortionists, sword swallowers, fire-eaters and aerial performers, culminating in a sensational Can Can finale. Kid Creole and his Coconuts maintained the pace with a fantastic performance, before the evening wound up with a DJ and podium dancers.
From the outset, Blackout’s project managers Chris Brain and Kevin Monks collaborated with Pci:Live’s technical director, Kevin Peacock and set designer, Martin Sutherland. Blackout supplied a massive quantity of rich red velour drapes, which were lavishly ruched and rigged on site, literally colouring the entire venue in red. This transformed the normally stark space into a decadent ‘rouge’ environment. The luscious red drapes divided the set into three distinct areas - the main stage, dancefloor and the casino.
The main stage set comprised of three reveal sequences: Blackout designed and supplied a substantial tab track system onto which the velour was attached, creating a ‘devil’s mouth’ effect, through which the dancers entered for the Can Can finale. The great swags of velour tracked apart to reveal the full stage and a huge starcloth backdrop - also from Blackout - for Kid Creole’s headlining slot. The starcloth was suspended behind a semi-opaque gauze screen, conjuring up a magnificent galaxy-like effect.
Building on the ornate, decadent feel, over 4,000 yellow and red bulbs of festoon lighting - an essential part of LD Gary Collins’ lighting design - were draped around the venue. The festoon adorned the main stage’s huge ‘rouge’ swags in a dramatic heart-shape, and was also suspended from the red velour casement ceilings, also designed and supplied by Blackout.
Since the party was staged over two evenings, the venue was downsized by Blackout using beautifully lit red velour ruched drapes. Suspended in huge swags beneath the balconies and from an oblong truss, the fabric concealed the greater part of the venue and made an intimate atmosphere for the first night. On the second evening, the drape was dismantled and the truss re-positioned to open the venue to its full capacity, accommodating 3500 guests.
(Ruth Rossington)
