Big and Curvy – Supporting Creative Technology and Festival Republic through the 2019 festival season

Festival organisers strive to push boundaries and increase the ‘WOW’ factor every year, so it was no surprise that the 2019 festival season was bigger and better than ever before. In response to this, Festival Republic joined forces with Creative Technology, Serious Stages and UK Rigging to create some of the largest screens ever used in the UK festival circuit. These screens got larger as the summer progressed, culminating in the Leeds and Reading festivals.

Hanging at each side of the stage, measuring 22.5m wide, 12m high and weighing in at just under 12 tonnes each, these panel screens covered a huge 270m2.

Hanging such a structure in the open air with unpredictable wind and weather conditions brings plenty of challenges. That’s why UK Rigging were brought in as specialist rigging consultants to provide pre-event and on-site supervision for the construction and removal of the screens.

Utilising bespoke header blocks made by Serious Stages and custom anti-rotational wire supplied by UK Rigging, an ‘up and over’ system was created to remove the hoists from view and create as clean a finish as possible. Even the Front of House screen got the curved treatment.

It would only take winds as low as 7mph to cause a potentially hazardous situation due to the large surface area of the screens so careful planning and execution were critical. With a regular team of Creative Technology technicians and UK Rigging supervisors over the course of the summer we covered Download, Community, Wireless, Longitude, Leeds, Reading & Electric Picnic.