Al Laith Event Services built a 9,390 seat temporary arena at JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residences) to host the recent completely sold out first leg of the 2011 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour 2011 in Dubai with an amazing 15,000 spectators. It was the first time the event has come to the UAE.
It is one of the largest amounts of seating that the company has ever supplied at a single event. The project was managed for Al Laith by Ross Cameron, who worked alongside 120 crew including scaffers, climbers and riggers, in the process constructing grandstands around 3 sides of the arena, and installing media platforms, 5 x camera platforms, 2 large format LED screen supports, 1 x kilometre of police barriers, 400 metres of Mojo crowd barriers and 1.8 Km of Heras fencing, complete with tele-handling vehicles and scissor lifts and other access equipment and assorted other site infrastructure elements.
Al Laith was working for Blink Events, an event production company based in Dubai. The process involved them taking over the car park and beach, an area of approximately 40,000 square metres between the Hilton and Sheraton Hotels on Jumeirah Beach for 2 weeks, during which they worked solid 14 hour days to conclude the site build.
The finished venue included both standing and seated raised viewing areas and a 30 x 40 metre VIP platform measuring 6 metres high.
All the levels were built using Steeldeck bases, after which Harlequin Marquees and Event Services supplied a bespoke flooring system that was fitted on top of the finished decking.
Seating surrounded the arena on 3 sides – with the spectacular beach and shoreline on the fourth, providing a dramatic and beautiful backdrop to the 3 hours of hi-energy bike stunts and seat-edge action as 6 top riders competed for points.
Behind the main grandstand, the Al Laith team added lighting gantry supports, together with the main FOH tower which was positioned in the centre at the back of the grandstand. This featured 4 levels and measured an impressive 10 x 10 metres in dimensions, standing 24 metres high. It accommodated lighting control, show callers, the judges and some film crews and media.
The two large LED screen support towers were constructed just behind the other two grandstands, both of which were 20 metres high and supported 4.6 tonnes of flown LED screen.
Cameron comments, “It was a very tight work schedule, and the pressure was on for us to turn it around quickly to allow the riders as much time as possible to rehearse on the track. Despite all this, it was also a fantastic site to work on with a really friendly atmosphere …. and we got to go to the beach every day!!”
Says Mike Smith, Head of Production for Blink Events, “It was an absolute pleasure working with the Al Laith team – we knew we were asking a lot with a huge build in a tight timeframe and Al Laith were the obvious choice. Everything came together brilliantly on site and resulted in a hugely successful event – thank you!”
For more press info. on Al Laith Event Services, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679/+44 (0)7831 329888 or Email ‘[email protected]’. For more general info and to contact Al Laith direct, check http://www.allaith.com or call +971 (4) 338 8882
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