A Great Reception

This is the best thing that’s ever happened in Swindon…so far,” one youthful optimist said early afternoon on day two. And given the sunshine, the setting and the stellar cast(s), on four stages, he probably spoke for his local generation.

“The BBC is about getting out there, not just to the major cities,” production engineering manager for the corporation, Donald Begg, explained on site. “[The Big Weekend] is the first festival of the year. It’s pan-BBC, for the people here, for people listening to Radio 1, 1Xtra, watching on the web, on the red button, and on BBC Three. It’s big acts, it’s 20,000 people a day, and it’s a massively good thing for Swindon,” he agrees.

Structure

Producing the event for a third successive year, SJM’s build stretched to nine days, with the main stage going in under a 16 pole Kayam concert tent.

“Being in a public park you have to be careful. You don’t try and get it done too quickly,” production manager Andy Redhead tells Access on the Sunday afternoon. “A big thing this time was making sure the ground was in a reasonable state before we let anyone in.” To that end, Eve Trakway supplied some 1,000 panels to the event, 900 of them via Trac. “That’s much more than you’ll see on a lot of other events because it’s for broadcast and it’s crucial that the BBC vehicles can get in. Saying that, we’ve been very lucky with the weather,” Redhead adds.

Madonna took the headlines in Maidstone, with a six song set embellished with the bells and whistles from her Sticky & Sweet tour. Swindon, conversely, benefitted from not having such a dominating force among its 70 or so acts. It was music first from the likes of Snow Patrol, Kasabian, Basement Jaxx, the Enemy, Lily Allen and the Prodigy, whose typically bass heavy headline set on day two set off car alarms and, two songs in, tripped a circuit breaker.

“This is the first TV Prodigy have done since sometime in the 1990s, and we agreed they could come in and do their show. Lily Allen had various [props] too. These are short sets, and we couldn’t let everyone bring things in, but we try and accommodate as much as possible,” Redhead says. “Madonna had six trucks, so we had to have a larger stage, on a slope in Maidstone. There was a simultaneous radio and live TV broadcast last year too, so that tested us all a bit,” he smiles.

“The main stage is a 20m by 15m four legged ground support, decked up 1.5m with a couple of video towers either side,” project manager for supplier Star Events, Phil Addyman, says. “The Kayam follows the lie of the land and we go against it, so we always end up with slight tweaks.”

The first event in a new contract with the BBC saw Star put a ‘treehouse’ camera platform in on site, among other provision for the broadcaster, together with the stages. “We’re doing all their structures at Glastonbury for the first time, so they can see what we do here and come back with constructive criticism as necessary,” Addyman explains. “It’s been a really useful few days.”