latest news headlines
Serious About The Big Day Out
UK-based Serious Stages supplied structures and equipment for the four main stages of Australia’s largest live music event – Big Day Out, enjoyed by over 300,000 music fans across six sites and two countries.
The two complete main stage systems (each featuring two stages, side-by-side) were leapfrogged between each outdoor venue – from the first gig in Auckland, New Zealand, and then on to the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Each show comprised two 18 metre wide by 22 metre deep main Orbit Stages from Serious, complete with black and silver sheeting. Serious also supplied decking, scaffolding, handrails and other accessories, plus an experienced team of riggers. This year the on-site team was led by regular Serious crew chiefs, Jeremy Mosdell and Steve McConnell.
Serious has been working with the Big Day Out since 1995. The Pilton, Somerset, UK based temporary staging and roofing specialists was originally contacted by BDO production manager Matt Doherty, who had seen their stages in action at Glastonbury Festival. He asked Serious to get involved in developing a distinct and individual look for their own event.
For the first three years of the working relationship, Serious hired most of the staging and crew to Big Day Out in collaboration with Australia Event Services based in the Surrey Hills, NSW. AES then decided to buy some staging equipment and AES and Serious have been working closely ever since.
This year Serious sent a further three 40 ft containers of equipment to AES, so they now own enough themselves to supply all four stages to the Big Day Out). This year also saw the stages increase in depth to the 18 metre dimension with each stage now featuring three 3.6 metre deep bays (instead of 2), plus D-Ends and Cantilevers at the front. Each roof is designed to fly 12 tonnes of production.
Logistically BDO is a hugely challenging project as the roofs have to be flown from the first show in New Zealand to Sydney, and the long distances between shows in Australia also make the trucking deadlines extremely tight.
Serious’s Steven Corfield comments: “It is a great opportunity for our crew to work in Australasia in January and February, before the season really kicks in here.”
The line up for BDO 2005 included the Chemical Brothers, the Beastie Boys, System of a Down, Slipknot, Powderfinger, The Music, The Hives, The Donnas, Grinspoon, Eskimo Joe, D4 and many, many more. Approximately 100 top artists and DJs performed across eight action-packed arenas at each site.
7th February 2005
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
