This year Glastonbury's famous Pyramid stage was flanked by two of Serious's new Goal Post PA towers, enabling SSE's Nexo Geo-T PA to be flown at a height of 60ft. The deck for the towers was two metres above the ground and each tower was ballasted by eight tonnes of concrete. This allowed SSE to angle the PA to throw right back across the hill. Pyramid highlights included headliners the White Stripes (Friday), Coldplay (Saturday) and Basement Jaxx (Sunday). The area was production managed by Dick Tee.
Serious supplied one of its newly designed 25m wide Space Roof Stages at the Other Stage, making it the largest stage on site in terms of usable area and cubic capacity. The stage Space Roof consisted of two 4.8m bays, one 2.4m bay and one 7.2m bay. One of the many features of this new product is its strength. Each arch is capable of taking a maximum distributed load capacity of nine tonnes, with the front cantilever arch supporting a distributed load of over six!
Accommodating several tones of lighting equipment for the event and on the Friday night, an additional six tonne LED wall was installed for Fatboy Slim's performance. The Space Roof was configured to give 13m of height clearance between the stage and the roof, which kept the lighting department - led by Oli Metcalf - happy. The Serious team also constructed 11m high (from deck to roof) scaffolding PA Towers.
The varied world of Jazz enjoyed a plethora of different acts from the Levellers to the Nigel Kennedy Jazz Project, all of whom performed on a Serious 18m Orbit Stage. Consisting of six 2.4m bays, this measured 19.2m wide by 19.2m deep and was two metres off the ground. 16m Luna PA Towers - a new product from Serious - were also part of the Jazz World package. Serious also built the FOH towers and disabled platforms at the Pyramid, Other and Jazz World.
For the East and West Dance Tents, the company supplied the stage decking and again for the Roots and John Peel Stages, plus ramps, steps and handrails as specified on all these stages. The Serious team started on site on 4 June for the Festival, which is traditionally the last weekend of the month. The site project manager was Jeremy Mosdell (Moz) who worked alongside Leo Barcala, Steve McConnell and Rob Symns.
Glastonbury was only just the tip of the iceberg for Serious last weekend - it also supplied 12m Orbits to Carshalton Rotary Club at Carew Manor, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Leicester Square; 15m Orbits to Forestry Commission events in Dalby Forest and Sherwood Pines Forest Park and for the National Trust at Petworth House, and 18m Orbits to Leeds Castle and Althorp House, plus decking for a show in Canon's Hill Park in Birmingham.
The same weekend saw the start of three simultaneous builds for upcoming events. International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth features three stages and assorted scaffolding structures; there's a 20m Space Roof stage under construction in the lake at Canon's Hill Park for the VE Day Spectacle and another 20m Space Roof at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for concerts and shows.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
