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Mojo Barriers UK go the Distance at Sonisphere
Mojo Barriers UK office reached a landmark 25,000m of stage barriers installed at events this summer. The leading industry barrier supplier has played a key part in maintaining safety over a busy summer of music since starting at the Radio 1 One Big weekend in May, through to providing all of the barriers at Sonisphere.
This new two-day rock festival for 60,000 held at Hertfordshire's Knebworth House on August 1st-2nd was promoted by Monsters of Rock founder Stuart Galbraith's new company Kilimanjaro. With four stages, headliners Metallica, Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold, Limp Bizkit and Nine Inch Nails topped an expansive bill of rock acts.
Mojo Barriers' director Jim Gaffney worked closely with site manager Steve Hill in creating a barrier layout that was safe for the audience, artists and security teams, installing 600m of Mojo Barrier protection around all four stages, mixing desks and delay towers. The main stage barrier system was configured with primary and secondary barriers joined by a finger to give security maximum access to audience.
Steve Hill, Sonisphere's site manager commented: "We started from scratch to create a completely new site as Knebworth has never been used for a multi-day camping festival with multiple stages. The layout worked really well and we anticipate needing to make just minor tweaks and expanding it a little for next year.
"The main barrier had to be safe while allowing enough movement between the stages, so we worked with the security suppliers and Mojo to arrive at this configuration which I expect we'll stick with for next year.
"I rely on good advice from Mojo Barriers for their barrier expertise in designing barriers, particularly in complex environments. Another show we worked very closely on this summer was the Oasis gig at Heaton Park. Production requested five delay towers for the 70,000 audience, so knowing Oasis are a very ‘dynamic' crowd we incorporated them into a 250m curved secondary barrier. The barrier was the result of lots of conversations with SJM, security, Jim and myself. It worked well and served several purposes. It was a radical system to ensure safety at this unique gig, with 20,000 people in the front section the barrier, it looked like a spaceship form the aerial view."
The Sonisphere design was an adaptation of the Download Festival barrier in June, where an ingenious barrier configuration was used on the main stage. This Download system was even bigger, taking on the front of house mix position. It was created to cope with the dynamics of a boisterous rock audience, limiting the build-up of high crowd pressures through side-to-side or rear-to-front swells, whilst allowing production access to front of house and giving security excellent access to the audience.
Mojo worked again with the Live Nation production team in Hyde Park for 10 shows including Hard Rock Calling and Wireless festival. Other major shows serviced by the Mojo Barriers' teams this summer have included Glastonbury Festival and T in the Park (which included 30 line-up gates controlling access to front circle). The company has also been on tour, providing a 400m system on the Take That tour as well as barriers on the AC DC and U2 tours. Away from music Mojo has expanded its range of crowd barriers, cable ramps and ropes and post barrier systems for the corporate market, most notably supplying the televised Big Brother evictions and providing pristine barriers to corporate shows in London's Westfield shopping centre.
In picture: Sonisphere site manager Steve Hill, with Mojo Barriers team Jim Gaffney, Chis Kordek, Gordon Forrest, Pete Burns.
13th August 2009
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