This year saw Tez Sheals-Barrett make her debut as Star Events Group project manager for the event. The first show in the series featured the Foo Fighters, who played to an 85,000-strong crowd on 17June. "We arrived in Hyde Park on 10 June to start the main stage build, allowing just five days in advance of production arriving on site!" says Sheals-Barrett.
"We had a lot of involvement with the band's production team due to the specific nature of the numerous structures they required. These included a specially designed thrust to allow Dave Grohl to run from the stage to the front of house towers and we had crew on hand throughout to make sure they got exactly what they wanted."
This was a very different situation from setup for the O2 Wireless Event which, as with traditional festivals dealing with multiple artists, required generic facilities for all bands, so Immediately the Foo Fighters' production had left, the stage was adjusted accordingly.
"We took out the Foos' front of house towers and swapped them for VT Follow Spot mast towers that were very successfully used at Live8 in 2005," Sheals-Barrett says. "We also took out the thrust and installed several additional structures.
"Wireless's stage two was positioned in a Kayam tent, where we provided a stage with integral upstage ground support, FOH and ancillary structures, with a similar set up provided for the Fender stage in the AJ Big Top. We provided two additional disabled platforms, three additional front of house platforms, the main wheelchair user platforms and 19 camera platforms around the site."
All this was turned around in just three days before the arrival of the festival production. The Star Events Group team had also put in six V-Tower delay towers for the Foo Fighters. These were covered with lights, along with the additional laser towers and were removed for Wireless, but were re-instated for the Roger Waters show, which was the next event to take place in the park on 1 July.
Sheals-Barrett says: "For this show a 'diamond quad' surround sound system was installed specifically for Dark Side of the Moon. Standard audio delays were positioned at front of house, with two V-Towers behind and a further five V-Towers, distributed around the outside of the arena to enhance the surround sound effects."
The other major aspect of Roger Waters' set was 130sq.m of Lighthouse LED screen, provided by XL Video, that formed the backdrop for the stage. The screen weighed a massive 10,400kgs not including rigging equipment and, despite the fact that Vertech has one of the highest weight-bearing capacities of any stage, due to the loads of the existing lighting rig it was necessary to create a one-off solution to accommodate the screen.
"We brought in a crane to sit directly behind the stage, positioned slightly to stage left to avoid the truck dock," says Sheals-Barrett. "The crane was then rigged to the main roof truss to support the extra load. As the screen was installed, we were able to control the loads applied to the truss by monitoring the onboard load sensors in the crane."
Roger Waters (and The Who the following night) also used a 12 tonne video screen that filled almost the entire rear wall of the performance area.
Despite having to work to a very tight schedule, things ran relatively smoothly. As John Probyn, production director for organisers Live Nation, concludes: "Running a series of events such as those in Hyde Park is inevitably a logistical challenge. But I've been working with Star Events Group for a number of years now and we have an excellent working relationship.
"Having an experienced and efficient on-site team makes things a great deal easier. Without that, such a complex series of events simply wouldn't be
