Serious Stages supplied a variety of stages, PA towers, roofing and decking elements at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival ….. including to the Pyramid, Other Stage, Jazz World, East and West Dance stages, Roots and the John Peel Stage.

Glastonbury 2005 has already been hailed as one of the most memorable, action packed and fun events for entertainment value, despite a violent thunder storm and torrential rain for three hours on the Friday morning which also rendered it one of the muddiest!!!

Pyramid

This year Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid stage benefited from being flanked by two of Serious’s elegant new Goal Post PA towers, enabling SSE’s Nexo Geo-T PA to be flown at a height of 60 ft.

The deck for the towers was 2 metres above the ground and each tower was ballasted by 8 tonnes of concrete. It allowed SSE to angle the PA to hang perfectly to throw right back across the hill, so the enormous main stage audiences could enjoy superlative sound even when some distance away.

Other Stage

Serious supplied one of their newly designed 25 metre wide Space Roof Stages here, making it the largest stage on site in terms of usable area and cubic capacity.

The Other Stage Space Roof consisted of two 4.8 metre bays, one 2.4 metre bay and one 7.2 m bay. One of the many features of this new product is its strength. Each arch is capable of taking a maximum distributed load capacity of 9 tonnes, with the front cantilever arch supporting a distributed load of over 6 tonnes!

It accommodated several tones of lighting equipment for the event, and on the Friday night, an additional 6 tonne LED wall for Fatboy Slim’s incendiary performance. The Space Roof was configured to give 13 metres of height clearance between the stage and the roof which kept the lighting department – led by Oli Metcalf – happy. The Serious team also constructed 11 metre high (from deck to roof) scaffolding PA Towers for the Other Stage. Chris Fitch and Abby Llewellyn production managed the area.

Jazz World

The varied world of Jazz enjoyed a plethora of different acts from the Levellers to the Nigel Kennedy Jazz Project, all of whom performed on a Serious 18 metre Orbit Stage. Consisting of six 2.4 metre bays, this measured 19.2 metres wide by 19.2 deep and was 2 metres off the ground.

Sixteen metre Luna PA Towers – a new product from Serious - were also part of the Jazz World package. The Jazz World stage was booked from Serious by Dick Tee, and the area was production managed by Toby Mills. Serious also built the FOH towers and disabled platforms at the Pyramid, Other and Jazz World.

More Glasto

For the East and West Dance Tents, they supplied the stage decking and again for the Roots and John Peel Stages, plus ramps, steps and handrails as specified on all these stages.

The Serious team started on site on 4^th June for the Festival which is traditionally the last weekend of the month. Their site project manager was Jeremy Mosdell (Moz) who worked alongside Leo Barcala, Steve McConnell and Rob Symns.

And Also

Glastonbury was only just the tip of the iceberg for Serious last weekend - they also supplied 12 metre Orbits to Carshalton Rotary Club at Carew Manor, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Leicester Square; 15 metre Orbits to Forestry Commission events in Dalby Forest and Sherwood Pines Forest Park and for the National Trust at Petworth House, and 18 metre Orbits to Leeds Castle and Althorp House, plus decking for a show in Canon’s Hill Park in Birmingham.

The same weekend saw the start of three simultaneous builds for upcoming events. International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth features 3 stages and assorted scaffolding structures; there’s a 20 metre Space Roof stage under construction in the lake at Canon’s Hill Park for the VE Day Spectacle and another 20 metre Space Roof at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for concerts and shows.