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Star Events Group Revolutionises Russian Winter Festival
Saturday 13th January saw thousands gather in Trafalgar Square for the third Russian Winter Festival, where Star Events Group took on the challenge of installing its groundbreaking Morbit stage at the base of Nelson’s Column in the iconic London landmark.
The free six-hour festival featured a varied programme of traditional and contemporary music and entertainment to celebrate Russia’s ‘Old New Year’ - New Year according to the Tsarist calendar that was used prior to 1917 - and which is still celebrated in Russia in mid-January.
Performers included The Suvorovsky Ensemble of the Military and Music Academy of the Ministry of Defence (originally set up as a second Moscow school for the Red Army), folk groups including Cossack Soul, the Chuvash State Ensemble of Song and Dance, Pelageya and Russian Song, plus contemporary artists including Ranetki and Tokio and Russian pop legend Garik Sukachiov.
Star Events Group supplied its 13m Morbit stage for the event, plus a 5m front of house structure positioned on top of the Squares’ terrace. The stage, dressed with large banners supplied by Imaginators, was put into position by a standard tractor unit and built using its pair of integral cranes. These were then used to fly the PA – one of the many advantages of the Morbit design – which was flown at a low height to ensure that the noise restrictions of the venue were adhered to.
“We were very lucky as the weather was fine for the both load in on the Friday and load out on the Sunday, despite the horrendous storm that swept the country the previous day,” comments Jane Russen, group sales director for Star Events Group. “This is the first time Morbit has been into Trafalgar Square, but with the assistance of the unit’s rear steering, the load in went very smoothly.”
In charge of the overall production at this, and the previous festivals, was live event company Flying Colours, whose creative director Peter Bird comments: “This is quite a challenging event for a staging company because of the variety of performances it has to accommodate: from choirs; to ballet; to rock bands all in one day. The fact that we could have a bigger and more effective stage than in previous years to account for this was a real boon.
“Trying to get a stage that size into, and out of, what is effectively a war memorial as cleanly and as quickly as they did demonstrates a wonderful solution. We loved its efficiency and it was great to have such a good platform installed so easily. It’s used because of this and it’s budget conscious as well.”
29th January 2007
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