The music events take place simultaneously over the August bank holiday weekend and share the same bill, so Brilliant Stages needed to design the giant, top heavy pieces to withstand the outdoor venues and be quick to set up and take down.
The design brief from lighting and stage designer, Oli Metcalfe, was realised by Brilliant Stages' CAD designer, David Harrison, who also acted as Brilliant's project manager and worked closely with Muse Production Manager, Steve Iredale, in delivering the various elements.
The set comprised of five forked 'pylons' ranging from 9.5m in height with a 2.5m wide span, to the smallest at 5.8m high - two of which were also designed to curve forward and sideways to replicate the hand-drawn perspective of the original artwork.
"Because the pylons were only going to be used at the two festival sites, we were able to maximise the structural integrity of the pieces which were very large," explains Harrison. "The largest pylon weighed in at 250kg with most of the weight in the base for stability and security."
Each pylon's central mast was constructed from laser cut profiled aluminium plate welded together to form a box section and fabricated in several lengths in accordance to the limitation of aluminium sheet sizes.
Brilliant Stages also constructed the roll drop system for the band's front reveal at the top of the set.
Ten 4mm tension cables - plastic coated to prevent snagging - were located at 2.5m intervals across the 24m wide drape and clipped off at 500 centres by retaining 'S' hooks. This ensured there was no slack as each fold only traveled 250mm and the drape would fold up neatly, even in the windy conditions of Reading Festival.
(Jim Evans)
