EVENT FOCUS
THE BRIT AWARDS 2021 The biggest night in the British music, the BRIT Awards 2021 celebrates the return of live entertainment with a spectacular show at London’s O2 arena attended by a socially-distanced crowd of 4,000 people – made up primarily of frontline workers – as part of the UK government’s Events Research Programme (ERP).
As part of the UK government’s Events Research Programme (ERP), The BRIT Awards 2021 celebrated the return of live entertainment with an in-person audience of 4,000 local residents, most of them frontline NHS workers, at London’s O2 arena on 11 May. With it came a brand-new colourful stage, designed by Es Devlin OBE, along with set specialist, Diagon, who worked in collaboration with the famed designer to create and build it. The design of this year’s presenter stage combined the use of maze architecture – which expressed the paths that many of those working within the creative industries have had to navigate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – with the use of colour by multidisciplinary artist Yinka Ilori MBE, which symbolised a message of hope and something to look forward to during these difficult times. Diagon worked with Devlin to bring her extraordinary vision to life, fabricating the structure at its London studio. The design ran through the
stage backdrop and platform, the carpet across the room and was also used on the music performance stage in video content and throughout the TV production visuals. This year’s BRITs was the latest in a series of collaborations between Diagon and Devlin, previous work includes her 2016 Mirror Maze and 2019’s Memory Palace at Pitzhanger Manor. “It was great to be back working with the BRITs and to once again collaborate with the brilliant Es Devlin,” commented Diagon’s Liam Ownsworth. “It was a huge privilege to bring Es Delvin’s vision to life for the biggest night in UK music. Heralding the return of live music events, it was a special moment for everyone working within the creative industry, who have been especially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The multiple layers and geometric shapes of the set needed to be built and installed without any visible supports from multiple angles for the camera shots, so internal spigot supports were used along with a 10
