The brief called for a substantial stage with full PA & lighting rigging facilities, a fully roofed and raised grandstand for 220 VIPs and a screen support. All easy enough except for the need to close Regent Street on a busy Saturday in November. The road closure order gave just six hours to set up and 4.5 hours to remove everything. Star Events Group squeezed in the same mobile stage used for The Olympic Torch Relay, with just inches to spare between blocking the access to French Connection on stage right and the fire lane on stage left.
With Westminster City Council insisting that only mobile structures could be used (due to the need to re-open the road on time) and no mobile grandstand being big enough, Star Events re-configured their largest mobile stage to contain the required 220 seats and the flown video screen, all fully weather protected with the front row of seats raised by 2.5m.
Working alongside Ethix Management, who installed power, sound and lights, the structures were signed off an hour ahead of schedule and the site cleared a full 45 minutes before the end of the road closure.
The whole process was supervised by Roger Barrett, technical & commercial director, who said, "It was great to have another occasion in central London this year that gave us the opportunity to really raise the bar on an event that has a long history, by doing what no other supplier can come close to. The whole day ran like clockwork for us."
(Jim Evans)
