Getting Seriously Chilled

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Serious Stages supplied staging and structures for several areas at the 2008 Big Chill festival, held at its beautiful Eastnor Castle site in Herefordshire. It was the third year running that the Glastonbury based company has worked with this popular and original boutique festival.

The Serious team of 18 was led by Steve “Vic” McConnell and it took approximately 5 days to erect the various structures.

The main Open Air Stage comprised a 3-bay version of one of Serious's new Supernova roofs – also featured at Glastonbury, Latitude and other leading festivals this summer. Characterised by elegant lines and gently rounded aesthetics, with an impressive 6 tonnes of weight loading per arch, this version of the Supernova offered 22m x 14.4m of stage space. It was customised with an 18 metre Orbit D-End built on to the back and utilised as a 9 metre changeover area.

The back area of the stage was joined to the main roof by an interconnecting sheet, and the entire structure was covered in white skins, matching the vibe of Big Chill's ambient branding.

The 518 square metres of decking was made up from Serious's Black Deck system which offers a weight loading of 5 Kilonewtons per square metre.

Serious also supplied a set of 15 metre high Luna PA wings and a three tier mixer/follow spot tower for the Open Air stage, plus 2 sets of Fast-Fold screen support towers measuring 2.4 x 1.2 metres by 6 metres high, which were used as projection screens.

Other ‘additionals' for the Open Air stage included the construction of two 2.4 x 2.4m square metre projection towers which were decked at 2.5 metres and roofed/sheeted for full weather protection.

For the Castle Stage, Serious constructed a 19.2 x 18 metre wide deck, 1.5 metres off the ground, two 9 metre high Satellite PA masts, a single level 4.8 square metre mixer riser at FOH and two sets of 2.4 x 1.2 metre by 6 metre high Fast-Fold screen support towers.

Over at the Outdoor Screen, more projector platforms were built along with screen support towers.

Says Serious's MD Steven Corfield, ‘It was great to work with The Big Chill for a third consecutive year and to see our new Supernova System at such a popular and widely respected festival. I look forward to all future events with Chillfest Ltd”.