This year the four-day festival was held at Coventry Cathedral and ran from June 20. The press and marketing manager for the festival, Veronica Meredith, called upon Maltbury dealer Stagepoint Technical Services to supply them with a demountable staging system. Stagepoint supplied 150 units of Maltbury's mid-weight staging system, Metrodeck, which was installed on the evening of 19 June and arranged in a raked formation from 200mm to 3m high. Creating the largest tiered platform ever used in the Cathedral, it stretched from the nave through to the sanctuary to accommodate a choir of some 550 singers and an orchestra of 50.
Hire manager for Stagepoint, Andrew Carleton, specified Metrodeck because: "It's lighter and smaller in size than Steeldeck 7.5, which we also stock, so it's easier to handle, plus the dimensions fitted in with the rest of the design at the Cathedral. Metrodeck's key elements are its ease of use, its size and suitability for use as tiered staging and its impressive weight loading - it can handle a lot for its size."
A Gala Concert on 22 June marked the culmination of the four-days' music-making and choirs from around the world, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and India, performed on the Maltbury staging during the evening. In addition to Metrodeck, Maltbury also manufactures Steeldeck 7.5, and Ambideck, each well established as popular demountable staging systems, for a wide range of institutions and companies. New this year are Metrodeck Ultra, an attractive aluminium version of Metrodeck, and Pro-Alloy, a smart and hard-wearing system which combines suitability for use in a variety of conditions with a highly polished finish.
(Lee Baldock)