A sixteen-man team from Showforce went to Cannes in June to support UK based production company Andy Peat Associates in the delivery of a large and complex beach activation for their client, (the world’s leading global music and podcast service provider) at this year’s “Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity”.
Taking place off La Croisette, on Stephanie Beach, the production was a major undertaking with numerous challenges, not least the beach location itself and very high temperatures. From overnight craning sixteen 13.5m artic trucks worth of staging, scenery, furniture, lighting and sound equipment onto the beach, all needed to build bars, seating areas, presentation areas, a podcast studio and a main stage for the headline acts to tight turnarounds on the four show days for the evening stage performances, the Showforce crew were there to help throughout.
The crew were split into two shifts; 08.00am to 8.00pm for the ‘London’ day crew, and 8.00pm to 08.00am for the ‘Liverpool’ night crew. During the build the overnight crew helped with the craning operations so that the elements needed for the next day’s work were in place. The day shift then worked alongside the scenery, audio visual and furniture crews to get everything ready for the opening.
Crew Numbers
16
crew on-site at peak periods
Type of Crew
Crew manager, crew chiefs, site crew
Key Skills
Day and night shifts, scenic, set build, groundworks
Location
Cannes, France
Once the beach was open at 09.00am to the guests the day crew were on standby to assist with any tasks that arose then at 4.00pm they were joined by the night crew to reset the beach for the evening shows. This included the removal of all furniture and parasols to create space in front of the stage and setting control and camera positions, as well as a multitude of other tasks for the 1200 audience who came to see the evening shows.
Apart from working on the beach in the very hot summer sunshine there was also the added challenge of unexpected and very heavy downpours on two occasions – just to add to the fun!
After the event, when everything had been packed up, craned out and all the crew had flown home Andy Peat said: “The work by the Showforce crew, ably led by their two crew chiefs, John and Billie, was noticed and very much appreciated by everyone on the APA production team, the end client team and all the suppliers. The guys all did a really good job and worked very hard in a challenging environment with a positive ‘can-do’ attitude and great banter. Nothing was a problem and I look forward to working with all of them again on the next one!”
Showforce was onsite from 11th – 28th June and amassed an impressive 3264 man hours on-site.
Request
a quote
a quote
Get in touch with us to discuss your latest project
