When Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar took center stage at the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at the New Orleans' Caesars Superdome on February 9, 2025, the production design team for this highly visual performance comprised Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc, Mike Carson from Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang creative team, and Dave Free. The Technical Design Department at All Access was involved in creating the fabrication, assembly, and load in plans for the halftime again this year.
Live Design chats with All Access staging supervisor Joey Brennan on the ins and outs of this 15-minute show that requires months of pre-planning.
Live Design: Can you talk about the collaborative process with both Bruce Rodgers and his "tribe" and the Kendrick Lamar camp?
Joey Brennan: Each of our three groups brought something to the table to pull off this year’s show as they do every year. The artist’s camp brings an intimate knowledge of the tracks and material they want to perform along with their best and most ambitious design for the scenery and staging needed to compliment the set list. Bruce Rogers and team are able to speak to and protect the artistic vision that is presented while also able to explain the reality of moving a football field worth of equipment from storage, to stadium, to field, and off again in only a few minutes. A feat largely carried out by a handful of trained staff and an army of local volunteers. We, All Access, take the information from both the artist and Tribe and fit it into our technical design capabilities, the time available, equipment, skills of our fabrication shop, and supply a crew to service, support, and modify the set once it arrives on site. Lastly both the team at Tribe and All Access work closely with the NFL and local grounds crew to protect the playing surface and ensure we are operating everything as safely as possible for all involved.
LD: Can you elaborate on the high level of technical design involvement this year? what required that and how did it impact your role?
JB: The Technical Design Department at All Access is involved in creating the fabrication, assembly, and load in plans for the halftime show each year. As a whole, that often amounts to three or four people working solely on the halftime show while others in the department focus on all the other jobs coming through All Access during the same time period. This year, the increased size and complexity of the stage for the Post Game trophy presentation and the addition of a Pre-Game Concert which came out of the newly designed Multi-Purpose Stage, combined with the size and ambition of the halftime show meant that every member of the technical design department was working on the Super Bowl for an extended period of time.
LD: What is done to protect the synthetic turf on the field from the carts and stagehands etc.
JB: The biggest tool we have to protect the turf in addition to the specific tire design we use are time, weight, and planning. Our collaborators at the NFL, DPS, Theatrical Resources, and Populous help to plan rehearsals to be on the field for the least amount of time needed for both the artists and technicians to learn the show. Additionally we do careful weight studies and plan the number of wheels per cart pushed on to the field to distribute the load as evenly as possible so no one area of a stage sees excessive load which is of course transferred to the field. Lastly, we plan for contingencies and bring extra wheels, repair kits, and custom padding to help distribute the weight even more across the playing surface if rehearsal time changes or is added and the set needs to sit longer than anticipated on the surface.
LD: What is All Access's role on site - what are they doing exactly before, during, after the show?
JB: Once onsite, All Access is responsible for the service, support, safety, and alterations to the set. The logistics, mechanics, and security around the Super Bowl are such that we spend months before hand planning out our crew, travel, and access to the various compounds and areas of the stadium. We bring a fully equipped fabrication shop with welders, milling machines, table saws, and more so that once we are onsite we are ready for anything that comes up. That could be a delay because of weather, this year’s load in was delayed two days because of 10” of snow in New Orleans of all places. It could be that once we’re into rehearsals, the designers have a new, better, or different idea for how a set piece should look or operate, nine times out of ten we can alter or fabricate that change onsite. We certainly don’t have weeks, or even days, to have something built offsite, package it, ship it, then reassemble it at the Super Bowl. We have about six full dress rehearsals maybe nine rehearsals on the field before the show. If we can’t have a new item ready for the next day in rehearsal then its likely not going to make it into the show. During the day we typically are working on these set notes, fixes, and changes and during the evening we are supporting rehearsal both of the stage moving on/off the field and the artist and cast as they perform.
As the fabricators we have better knowledge than anyone about how the carts and set pieces were intended to operate and assist the other departments onsite in getting them on and off the field, in installing lighting, sound, pyro, and special effects, and ensuring that everything makes it back off the field in one piece after every rehearsal. We could not be so focused on the set itself without the help of the other departments that return every year to supply leadership, equipment, and the people power needed to move the sets on and off the field.
LD: What were the challenges and solutions along the way?
JB: For me the biggest challenges are time and resources. We have limited time and limited resources to accomplish a long list of tasks every day. Using both those things where they are needed most and working as a team across many departments is the only way to pull off a show worthy of the Super Bowl. From design, fabrication, shipping, rehearsal, and to the big show in less than 10 weeks.
Beyond that, this year the challenges were all in the weather. We were delayed two days loading in to the Halftime Compound by an unprecedented winter storm in New Orleans which shut down every major highway in the area and made it almost impossible for our 20 trucks of staging and equipment to move safely. Then about 45minutes before halftime a rain storm no one saw coming cropped up and soaked the streets. The Theatrical Resources and DPS crew had plenty of tarps and protection for the staging itself, but it added a little last minute excitement to make sure we could travel safely and protect the Field Team Members from the rain and have time to remove tarps, dry wet spots, and make it on to the field as planned.
Live Design's Super Bowl LIX Apple Music Halftime Show coverage is sponsored by All Access.