The summer of 2008 saw many of the the major touring artists of the year come to Stageco for their international staging requirements. Each artist presented a different challenge in addition to expecting the best stage for their tour, with requirements for flexibility, economy and reduced carbon emissions all among their priorities.

With this in mind, Stageco developed a new, spectacular touring stage, The Boogdak XL, which was equally at home on the road as at a festival. This created a strong visual impact for Bon Jovi’s international 2008 ‘Lost Highway’ tour while having the advantage of being fully re-usable (unlike many bespoke touring stages) for other events, such as Scotland’s T in the Park (see Festivals).

The Boogdak XL combines the capacity and modular adaptability of the company’s classical four tower system with the elegance and convenience of the smaller curved Boogdak design which gives better drainage properties. The Boogdak XL also boasts compact transport volume and improved modular depth capacity.

“Bon Jovi needed three roofs and approached us for a standard type,” says Hedwig. “We told them we wanted to invest in a new roof and offered them this original product.”

Bruce Springsteen needed a robust touring system which could adapt to a variety of new venues on the tour. Springsteen was the first major rock production to play the new Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal FC, in London and the stage needed to fully comply with all the requirements of such high-prestige environments.

As a result, the production specified Stageco’s Super Roof, which held 20 tonnes of PA and lighting equipment. Proj4ect manager Bert Kustermans commented, “The UK venues included Manchester United FC’s stadium, Old Trafford, and the Emirates Stadium, which was holding its first concert, so we had to adapt to those venues. Across Europe stadiums such as Parc des Princes (Paris), Nou Camp (Barcelona) and San Siro (Italy) have become well known to us.”

In the USA, America’s top grossing country and western star, Kenny Chesney, chose Stageco US to provide an enormous stage for his 14 date tour. Chesney used a 25 metre Stageco roof with increased load capacity to carry a tracking video wall which opened in the middle. The roof, which rose 60 feet above ground level, was adapted with an extra tower plus PA and video wings.

Stageco demonstrated its logistical capabilities by providing two sets, one for the western shows including Phoenix and San Francisco, the other for the eastern dates including Nashville, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Boston. “Kenny Chesney demands great looking stages for his audiences and always wants to do something creative,” says Stageco’s Vice President, US Operations, Mary Lou Figley.

When Celine Dion returned to Europe this year, local promoters separately approached Stageco Belgium and Germany for the large outdoor concerts the Canadian star was performing in Poland, Switzerland, France and Germany. Both branches provided her with a 25 metre Festival Roof.

“We are proud that an international star of Celine Dion’s status should return to Stageco on a regular basis,” says Stageco’s Project Manager, Dirk de Decker. “We believe it reflects the quality and consistency of service we offer major productions.”

It was another strong year for festivals in 2008, as Stageco rolled out new products into the festival environment and worked with new clients, while regular events went from strength to strength.

Closest to home was the Werchter Festival, which attracted over 80,000 music fans to heart of Belgium this July. Having scooped another ILMC Best Festival award, the festival has truly established itself as a benchmark of international production standards.

Stageco supplied the 25m main stage with all ancilliary pa, video and FOH structures, whilst the 6,000 strong second stage audience enjoyed the cover supplied by Stageco’s unique pyramid stage.

Stageco US worked with AEG Live at the new Rothbury Festival, an alternative rock event on a 2,000 acre ranch in Northern Michigan. The event welcomed up to 35,000 fans over three nights. “Although the organisers specified standard stages, we gave them a 25 x 20 metre Black Box roof system for the mainstage and a 18 x 14 metre Boogdak for the second stage, which has a nice sleek line that audiences seem to like,” says Mary Lou Figley.

“It’s a market which we believe will grow more,” she explains. “Although large scale stadium touring in the US has decreased, the emergence of a string of festivals like Rothbury represents a similar amount of business as a tour itself.”

At Arras, in France, Stageco Belgium helped the established Main Square Festival, make the leap to a higher profile with headliners including Radiohead, Mika and The Kooks. As a result, a larger stage was required than in previous years and the 30,000 capacity town square took a full-sized Festival Stage with 25 metre roof. The company provided all structures including delay and spot towers and front of house structure.

“The stage was sited on top of an underground car park and our load calculations were approved by the city engineers, ensuring absolute structural safety,” says Stageco’s Project Manager Dirk de Decker, of the event’s main challenge. The same structure was re-installed for a separate concert by Metallica later in the summer.

In the UK, Stageco Belgium supplied the staging for the series of events in London’s Hyde Park starting with the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday 46664 Concert, which was broadcast around the World. The main stage was then modified to suit the requirements of The Police and Eric Clapton who headlined Hard Rock Calling weekend, and again for Jay Z and Mark Ronson headlining the Wireless 02 Festival; as well as adding 2nd and 3rd stages.

At Download the festival moved to an entirely new site within the Donington Park racetrack. The main stage needed to deal with a considerable slope that and Stageco’s Super Roof towered over a level scaffolding substructure that varied in height from 1.4 to three metres. Stageco provided the festival with a brand new offering to the UK market: a 25 x 10 metre second stage that gives organisers a very effective alternative to suit audiences of 5,000 to 10,000. At V Festival, Stageco cemented a three year relationship, supplying the main stage to both sites. Dirk de Decker believes the operation is “well rehearsed and bedded in.”

At Scotland’s, T in the Park, the organisers decided to use Stageco’s newly developed Boogdak XL, which has a characteristic arched roof that drains rainwater to the sides. The new feature looks dramatic and has significant operational advantages, keeping a greater area of the production dry in wet or stormy weather.

“We were interested to see how the Boogdak XL performed in a festival environment,” says Hedwig. “The feedback we’ve had from festival organisers and artists at T in the Park suggests that the Boogdak XL was a great success, providing a spectacular environment for the performers, while being hugely practical as well.”

Stageco has met a number of exciting one-off challenges over the last six months, either at individual “special” concerts or indoor tours which have opted to play some outdoor venues. Occasionally different tours or events have coincided, enabling the use of the same Stageco equipment, resulting in some interesting production changeovers.

At Wembley, London, The Foo Fighters played their biggest gig ever on a bespoke, in-the-round stage designed by Stageco’s in-house R&D department. A huge catwalk reached nearly the entire length of the stadium, allowing every member of the audience an “up close and personal” experience. A distinctive 26m x 26m Stageco “Super roof” formed the main stage, while the catwalk connected to a B-stage.

The company demonstrated flexibility when waterproofing issues at the stadium required a repositioning of the stage. Stageco re-planned the layout to ensure 360 degree sightlines for the 80,000 fans present.

In Paris, the Bruce Springsteen international tour arrived at Parc des Princes stadium just one week before a major Mika show, allowing the two productions to share the same stage. While the distinctive Stageco “Super Roof” stayed in place, the company rebuilt the stage deck in a single day, while the additional work to instal the large set required by Mika took a further five days. The changeover was carried out by a team of six Stageco crew plus 14 local crew.

“The main challenge was the timing of the build, and the fact that Mika had to be a unique show at Parc des Princes,” says Stageco France’s Thierry Nataf. “Many production features could only be decided at the last minute so it required a strong ability to react technically and as a team, as well as nerves of steel! The success of the project also sprung from the good relationships between the French production team and Stageco’s French office and the overall group.”

Stageco Netherlands put on an impressive performance for a new series of concerts at the refurbished Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam, home to Feyernord FC. The Kuipconcerts, as they were known, saw three performances by popular Dutch bands Doe Maar (who played two nights) and Kane (one night). Total attendance for the three shows was about 100,000.

For Stageco, the key challenge at this show was the restricted access. As a result a Stageco 4 Tower roof, 90 metres long by 20 metres high, was sited centrally along one of the stadium’s longer sides, built from one PA wing to the other, rather than from the centre outwards.

“We enjoyed the challenges presented by the venue and look forward to many more years of Kuipconcerts,” says Stageco Netherlands’s Eddie Slotboom.

Stageco US were able to help The Eagles in Canada when a local supplier was unable, at short notice, to provide the service. The company used its renowned logistical abilities to bring equipment from different locations to provide a 25 x 20 metre roof, with PA wings measuring 4 x 11 metres.

“One of Stageco’s strongest assets is our international presence,” says Mary Lou Figley, Vice President of US Operations. “When a client comes to us at short notice with a project that crosses borders, Stageco’s vast experience allows us to determine quickly where material must come from and how it must be moved.”

The big story for Stageco this summer was the Euro 2008 international football held in Austria and Switzerland. Stageco Germany provided a range of spectacular structures, with some additional input from Stageco France.

The clients included the competition organisers themselves, UEFA, as well as sponsors and other organisations which provided viewing facilities in public areas for fans who could not get tickets to the matches.

Perhaps the most visible of these, on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, was the enormous Fanzone, organised jointly by the city of Vienna and UEFA. Stageco installed the main stage in Rathausplatz, a large Communications Centre, the Supervision EM 2008 (a public video viewing support) and a huge experiential marketing zone for the public, Meinl’s Kaffewelt, welcoming 12,000 visitors per day.

Stageco Germany’s Managing Director Werner Herbst led a team of five project managers on the Vienna Fanzone. For the structure in Rathausplaz. the company provided its Micro Arch stage, which hosted a variety of DJs, bands and up and coming stars.

The largest of the structures, Meinl’s Kaffewelt, took six weeks to plan and consisted of three large temporary buildings erected on a six metre-high viewing platform measuring 2,668 square metres.

“The Euro 2008 project has been an enormous logistical challenge and one that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting,” says Stageco’s Werner Herbst.

Elsewhere, a range of exciting projects demonstrated Stageco’s ability to deliver bespoke projects at unusual events. In Manchester, UK, a homecoming fight by the former world champion light welterweight boxer Ricky Hatton in The City of Manchester Stadium required a stage roof which allowed a capacity audience to see the action whatever the weather. Stageco provided a modular roof system, designed by the company’s in-house CAD designers, which allowed sightlines to be optimised throughout the stadium.

About 50,000 VW GTI-lovers attended the GTI-Treffen in Reifnitz am Wörthersee, Austria. The organiser, VW AG, asked Stageco Germany to provide a 40 x 50 metre substructure for exhibition displays and spectacular decorative effects. A Stageco 12 x 12 metre roof protected the onstage screen. At the instruction of the client, the entire surface of the structure and roof was covered in a white membrane. Additionally, a 10 metre span welcome/goodbye sign was erected over the village high street, to similarly high production values. Alongside Stageco deployed a 20 man crew for six days on the project.

Continuing their success in supplying the world of fashion, Stageco Netherlands completed an extraordinary project for the international jeans brand G-Star. The company built a fashion show stage set, complete with hydraulic lifts and control systems, which formed an integral part of the show, moving the models around the stage. The set was used at the prestigious fashion exhibition Bread and Butter in Barcelona, as well as at a New York event starring Denis Hopper.

“We are delighted to have provided such a wide range of bespoke staging products and installations for so many high prestige clients,” says Tom Bilsen. Stageco’s Operations Manager. “They demonstrate our continuing ability to meet creative and unusual briefs reliably and in very tight time schedules.”