Festival organisers call on De Boer’s temporary accommodation

With live music festivals becoming an ever-greater part of the UK’s events calendar, structure specialist De Boer has shown how temporary accommodation can really fit the bill.

One-off concerts
The company’s list of 2011 assignments has included many of the capital’s headline gigs – including Hard Rock Calling and Wireless – as well as one-off concerts and the stunning Isle of Wight Festival.

Cultural gatherings
De Boer has also shown that temporary structures have a key role to play away from the worlds of rock and pop – thanks to an impressive performance by the company at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, one of the world’s best-known cultural gatherings combining literature, music, dance, theatre and the visual arts.

Industry-leading organiser
This year’s Hard Rock Calling and Wireless – both held in London’s Hyde Park – saw De Boer strengthening an existing relationship with industry-leading organiser Live Nation.

Production and events
Hannah Farnham, Live Nation’s Head of Production and Events, explained: “De Boer has worked with us in Hyde Park for about six years now and every year the brief changes and becomes more demanding.”

Brilliant reaction
She added: “The team at De Boer always react brilliantly to our needs and make our complicated site just a little less complicated!”

Network of facilities
For the Hyde Park assignments the temporary structure specialist was given just seven days to construct a fantastic network of facilities including two VIP areas with a mock English pub in both of them, hospitality suites, bar areas, outside decking, crew catering, artists’ area, media centre, merchandising outlets, production office and first-aid tent.

Long-term client
Kate Morrison, Key Accounts Manager at De Boer, said: “Live Nation is a long-term client and we have built up an extremely good relationship with them over the years, anticipating their needs and meeting the challenges they throw at us year after year. The festivals get better and better and we are very proud to help them provide the facilities they need to make these concerts such a fabulous success.”

Back-to-back concerts
The back- to-back concerts in Hyde Park kicked off with a return visit by iconic rockers Kings of Leon. Drummer Nathan Followill took to twitter to describe the band’s final Hyde Park gig as “the best night of my life”.

Anniversary festival
Then The Killers headlined for the first day of Hard Rock Calling as the festival celebrated its 40th anniversary. The weekend proved to be a vintage year as Grammy-award-winning rockers Bon Jovi headlined with a three-hour set on Saturday. The following day living legend Rod Stewart took to the stage.

A-frame structures
Kate Morrison said: “We used mainly A-frame structures and there were about eight on each side of the site. They were then left in place for the Arcade Fire concert in the park before forming the backdrop to Wireless.”

Headlining acts
As one of the UK’s biggest music festivals, Wireless boasted headlining acts including global mega stars The Black Eyed Peas, dance gods The Chemical Brothers and ’90s Britpop legends Pulp.

Stunning VIP facility
De Boer also created a stunning VIP facility earlier in the summer at the Isle of Wight festival which celebrated its tenth anniversary. The event has become one of the most popular in the music calendar with over 250,000 people attending.

Main event arena
Meanwhile around 160,000 people attended this year’s National Eisteddfod of Wales, which was staged in and around Wrexham. As a long-time supplier to the world-famous gathering, De Boer provided organisers with key facilities including the main event arena, competition venues, theatre, exhibition space and performers’ areas.