MDLBEAST SOUNDSTORM

AN ALL-STAR CAST AND CREW COME TOGETHER TO DELIVER A MAMMOTH EVENT THAT IS A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE BURGEONING SAUDI ARABIAN EVENTS INDUSTRY.

In the space of just over three years since the first edition of its flagship festival, SOUNDSTORM, MDLBEAST has experienced a meteoric rise, growing rapidly into a multifaceted music entertainment company that is a major force in the development of the Saudi Arabian live events industry. The third edition of SOUNDSTORM, which took place in December 2022, was the biggest yet, attracting more than 600,000 music fans for a threeday extravaganza headlined by a catalogue of global superstars, including Bruno Mars, Swedish House Mafia, Post Malone, DJ Khaled, and David Guetta.

With seven stages spread across a massive 5.5 sq km purpose-built festival site, SOUNDSTORM is a festival on a mammoth scale – a fact that became painfully apparent as we dashed from stage to stage the day before opening, checking in with some of the key figures from the various production teams working on the event, all while gradually burning to a crisp in the afternoon sun.

One man who certainly has no problem navigating his way around the vast festival site is

MDLBEAST’s Executive Director of Events, Michael ‘Curly’ Jobson. While he was understandably tied up with the huge task of overseeing the general running of the festival during our visit, Curly took some time out of his busy schedule to catch up with TPMEA once the dust had settled.

“It’s mind-boggling how big and productionintensive it is,” he reflected, looking back on the project. “All the planning and the learnings from 2021 came together. The key thing is the customer journey; we learned so much about our customer and what they want in a festival. We are immensely proud of what we produced.”

A 40 -year veteran of concert production, there’s not much that Curly hasn’t come across in his time in the industry. However, even he was taken aback by the sheer scale of SOUNDSTORM. “The movement of people, traffic flow, parking, security, accessibility to the venue… all these factors needed to be carefully considered before we even started talking about producing the show,” he recalled. “I showed up here in 2020 and, not being from the festival world, I had to learn very quickly. I applied the same logic I have applied to everything else I’ve ever done in my career, which is ‘if you don’t know how to do it, ask somebody’.”

With the backing of the MDLBEAST leadership – “Ramadan [Alharatani, CEO] and Talal [Albahiti, COO] give me endless support” – Curly set about assembling a team capable of delivering the colossal production. “I’ve called upon some incredible people along the way, who helped bring me to an understanding of how to produce an event of this nature,” he said.

One of the many “incredible people” who were integral to the festival’s success is Festival Director, Matt Richman of productionglue, a TAIT company. “Without Matt, I’d be going nowhere fast,” Curly smiled. “We’re both from the same world and have a clear understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We’ve dovetailed very nicely.”

Also speaking to TPMEA after the event, Richman outlined the enormity of the task. “This is a massive endeavour that comes imbued with both logistical and operational challenges as we coordinate multinational teams,” he commented. “We begin preparation over a year in advance, with crews on the ground throughout the year working to ensure that we are ready for opening day. Our team starts with a set of core planning members and evolves to comprise over 150 on the ground, not including the 10,000-plus staff and crew needed during show days to support the patron experience.”

The Festival Director pointed to an “unmatched level of precision” required to execute the event to the required standard. “That is why we have brought back a lot of familiar names and companies with international expertise and festival experience, including: Special Projects, PRG, MTD, Silent House, ER Productions, Cassius Creative, Clair Global, TAIT, Ginger Owl, ESM, and Safe Events, among many others,” he stated. “These partners are best in class at what they do and helped to ensure that SOUNDSTORM could light up the night skies and break new records in pyrotechnics, as well as deliver an unparalleled guest experience that kept attendees clamouring for more.”

MDLBEAST is aiming to build a talent infrastructure within Saudi Arabia, providing opportunities for homegrown companies and

Saudis to shine on the global stage. “It is also our long-term goal to employ local KSA companies that are continuing to evolve,” Richman said. “We continue to evaluate all suppliers’ performance against festival metrics, and we look for the best and brightest talent to fulfil our suite of suppliers across numerous industries.”

Curly also added his two pence about Saudisation. “We’ve got a government mandate that the companies we use must register in KSA, have equipment in country, and be training Saudis to be part of the industry,” he explained. “I told every international vendor we used in the first year that they had two years to be registered and operational in the country with warehouses, crew, training programmes – everything in place – and I’m happy to say, we’re there. I feel incredibly proud to have got in at the forefront of the formation of an industry.”

‘HAPPY, HEALTHY, AND INFORMED’

A major feature of this year’s festival and a new addition to the SOUNDSTORM site was an elevated walkway, which enabled top-tier ticketholders to circumnavigate the entire festival above the crowds at ground level. “The inclusion of the VIB [Very Important Beast] Walkway added another dimension to this festival, offering stellar views of performances, premium areas to lounge, and providing attendees with a whole new perspective of the festival,” Richman said.

“T he halo around our central gathering place – called MDLTOWN – was particularly impressive, as you navigated this circular area looking down at the green spaces that surrounded the projection-mapped MDLBEAST logo,” he added, noting that in all, there was an impressive 62,000 sq m of green space “where guests could kick back, enjoy a bite, and relax with friends” within the festival grounds.

Cole Griswold, Project Lead for productionglue, added more detail on the reasoning behind the introduction of the walkway system. “The walkways were engineered with two main purposes,” he revealed. “The first was to allow reduced patron access and thus less dense crowding while exploring the festival. The second was to implement our power, water, and sewage connections through the walkway structure, therefore reducing the need for trenching across the site.”

The walkways weren’t the only change to the site, as Griswold explained. “We also went much bigger, increasing the footprint by 30% and adding new premium-level offerings,” he noted. “Additionally, we expanded the parking capacity, building new parking lots and increased access for attendees by establishing new entry points into the festival grounds.”

There was also an increased focus on ensuring that all attendees could say connected. “Being able to share this FOMO-inducing experience with others was a hugely important aspect of this festival,” Griswold told TPMEA. “To ensure that guests had ample connectivity out in the desert, we installed over 37,000m of tactical fibre, 152,400m of raw CAT5, 480 Ethernet hardlines, and 980 wireless access points (2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and 6Ghz) paired with 4G LTE and 5G cellular, increasing the number of cellular towers by 10 across our parking lots and site.”

Clair Global was responsible for all the IT infrastructure throughout the site, which took a team of 28 crew four months to install. The company also supplied the extensive radio system for the event, which comprised 2,100 radios, two fixed dispatch consoles and one remote console, handling almost 200,000 radio calls during the three show days alone.

Sustainability was high on the agenda, with several initiatives to aid in that respect, including the 1,300 shipping containers, which were utilised as building blocks for all four of the UNDERGROUND stages and various other infrastructure needs across site. “All the palm trees were also upcycled from palm farms through a preservation process, allowing them to be used for years to come,” Griswold highlighted. “We also had eight water refill stations positioned around the site and sold reusable water bottles at our merchandise outlets.”

The complete water infrastructure for the event was once again provided by MTD.

Besides taking care of the drinking framework at the world’s biggest festival overlay, MTD also premiered its new wastewater treatment unit, the black label, which purifies wastewater to the extent that it can be re-used for watering the plants and cleaning.

Byrne Equipment Rental provided 250 ablution units in a variety of configurations, including regular male and female ablutions as well as 38 bespoke VIP units, along with water and waste management. The company also provided 150 temporary buildings utilised as office cabins, and 80 generators, ranging from 30kVa to 250kVa.

For productionglue’s Griswold, the “sheer scale” of the festival is “undoubtedly the biggest challenge we face”. He commented: “We employ over 300 different suppliers from across the globe who are experts in their field. The co-ordination of our crew operations is a massive undertaking, from logistical flight and ground transport to hospitality in accommodations and meals. It is our goal to ensure each crew member has the essentials needed to come to site everyday happy, healthy, and informed.”

‘RAISING THE BAR’

Al Laith has been involved with SOUNDSTORM since the event’s inception. “This year Al Laith had approximately 180 personnel constructing structures over a three-month period,” said Al Laith CEO, Michael Clark. “Our scope was to engineer, procure and construct the complete DOWN BEAST venue including staging, LED support, PA cantilevers, FOH, and the conclave structure, which allowed for better stage viewing.” Al Laith was also contracted to engineer, procure, and construct a variety of complex structures across the entire site, which included all the main entrances as well as all the ramps and bridges for road crossings and service lanes. “Some of these bridges were 40m wide and over 100m long, creating some technical, engineering and construction challenges for our team,” Clark recalled.

Al L aith also engineered, procured, and constructed the staging and LED supports inside the DANCE BEAST venue as well as provided support across the site with PA towers, lighting towers, electric golf buggies and electric offroad vehicles through its plant and machinery rentals division. “MDLBEAST is raising the bar when it comes to size and standards for concert festivals,” Clark added. “We are humbled to be one of the selected companies that is entrusted by MDLBEAST and productionglue to undertake such a flagship project and it is an honour we take very seriously.”

Ag greko also played a pivotal role in the event, supplying all stage technical power; power and secondary distribution to the VIB Suite and Terrace; power and secondary to all stage areas’ BOH cabins and artist lounges; and power to the event operations centre, suppliers’ compound, and crew catering areas. “We had 117 generators totalling around 36 mVa of power, with more than 125km of mains cables and a further 300km of secondary cables,” stated Aggreko’s Imran Khan. “It was a pleasure to see all the different suppliers and technical companies from different parts of the world come together to create this amazing event.”

Also returning to the SOUNDSTORM fold was Event Lab, which provided a guest service solution for the second year in a row. The company deployed a total of 570 staff, divided between ushers, VIB staff, runners, lost and found, information booths, and several other key positions around the site.

Ro ck-It Global was entrusted with the massive task of delivering the huge quantities of freight required for a show of this scale. “We relished the opportunity to work on this project with some of the best suppliers in the live touring industry, under some of the most demanding circumstances the industry has seen in modern times,” said Rock-It Global Managing Director, Chris Palmer.

The company delivered approximately 225 40ft ocean containers, 300,000kg of airfreight, and 200 trucks – including around 35,000 litres of dangerous goods related to the vast pyrotechnic part of the show.

“T he location, immense size of the production and complex coordination efforts with vendors and suppliers worldwide, coupled with the transportation capacity issues that have made 2022 additionally onerous meant that this was a project that demanded months of planning and a large team of experts from both Rock-it Global and our partners in Saudi Arabia, SAL,” he continued. “Rock-it Global has been supporting live events in KSA for several years, with this being the pinnacle, so it was very important that we put a strong team together – and we utilised our global network of offices and staff to ensure expertise across the board, bringing staff together from five continents to support the operation, both in KSA and in our own offices,” he added. “Rock-It Global is proud to be part of the positive transformation taking place in KSA with our partners SAL, and it has been a true privilege to work on this project with everyone involved.”

‘A ONE-STOP SHOP’

Much of the behind-the-scenes logistics work on SOUNDSTORM was handled by Ginger Owl (GO), www.coloursound.com

Support team, which we believe is unique to the industry. This service allows anyone with access to the Crew Hub to ask questions and find answers for any query or need as they prepare to travel or while they are on site.”

GO’s Artist Liaison team operated in the same way, completing the visas, artist advance, hotels, and ground transport for 198 artist groups. The team was also on hand to manage on-site requirements such as dressing rooms, riders, and transfers to stage, as well as managing a vast transport fleet, which included four helicopters, and coordinated 1,972 vehicle transfers.

All crewmembers were provided access to an online Crew Hub, which was developed by GO’s in-house technology development team. “It is a one-stop shop for crewmembers to manage all their accreditation, flights, visas, accommodation information, book on-site assets, access key event documents and additional resources, plus lots more,” Skipper explained.

Built in the space of three months, the system was utilised by over 30,000 crewmembers and provided live support communication with GO’s Vendor Support team, the ability to download ‘collection tickets’ for accreditation, and book the flights via an API link with Concur Solutions.

“T he mobile app and ‘crew feed’ allowed Festival Management to share important updates via push notifications in real-time to all crew on site,” Skipper furthered. “The app became the single source of truth for crew to receive the essential travel documents and information needed for their time at the festival.”

Sk ipper described “the size and scale” of the event as the biggest challenge. “Being ahead of the game on incoming groups and making sure all areas of their needs are met, particularly ensuring that all staff and artist visas are completed and available on time, is quite a task, as is finding suitable accommodation for them all,” she recalled.

“T he Crew Hub was a great help with the visas – and teamwork between the GO, productionglue and TAG teams helped us rationalise the accommodation. Having worked in the region for some time now and working on many of MDLBEAST’s other projects, we have good relationships with the local properties and can work together with them to secure the rooms needed.”

The teamwork on design, development, implementation, and adoption of the Crew Hub was a source of pride for Skipper. “This required input from MDLBEAST, productionglue, TAG, Special Projects as well as the imagination and creativity of the GO Event Technology team along with their developers,” she explained. “Delivering the project from conception to implementation in such a short timeframe and seeing it go on to become a great success for the event and the users is something we’re all truly proud of – and doing this with a female-led directorship and diverse management team was a great achievement for the company.”

TAG left nothing to chance when it came to ensuring that everyone was where they needed to be and arrived in comfort. “Our role comprised everything from a macro level down to a micro level,” stated TAG’s Fahim Jalali. “To process the enormous amount of flight and accommodation input from MDLBEAST, productionglue, TAG, Special Projects as well as the imagination and creativity of the GO Event Technology team along with their developers,” she explained. “Delivering the project from conception to implementation in such a short timeframe and seeing it go on to become a great success for the event and the users is something we’re all truly proud of – and doing this with a female-led directorship and diverse management team was a great achievement for the company.”

TAG left nothing to chance when it came to ensuring that everyone was where they needed to be and arrived in comfort. “Our role comprised everything from a macro level down to a micro level,” stated TAG’s Fahim Jalali. “To process the enormous amount of flight and accommodation arrangements required for a festival of this size and to ensure the smallest details were taken care of without ever dropping the ball is an outstanding effort.”

Big Beast

The headline-grabbing star attraction and home to festival headliners, the BIG BEAST stage was once again the centre of attention. While the stage retained its familiar angular aesthetic from the previous year and was again clad in thousands of lighting fixtures and a continuous run of LED, this year a new proscenium arch was added to the design to accommodate the live acts included in the line-up, such as Bruno Mars and Post Malone.

PRG reprised its role, providing a full 360° technical delivery on the BIG BEAST stage. The supply included a vast lighting inventory of over 2,500 IP-rated fixtures; more than 400 L-Acoustics cabinets throughout the stage and delay towers, as well as DiGiCo consoles and FOH and monitors; and all LED, cameras, servers, and video control.

“T he stage has broken world records thanks to the vast size and ambition of the technical design, and this requires world-class planning in every single department the project touches, arrangements required for a festival of this size and to ensure the smallest details were taken care of without ever dropping the ball is an outstanding effort.”

Big Beast

The headline-grabbing star attraction and home to festival headliners, the BIG BEAST stage was once again the centre of attention. While the stage retained its familiar angular aesthetic from the previous year and was again clad in thousands of lighting fixtures and a continuous run of LED, this year a new proscenium arch was added to the design to accommodate the live acts included in the line-up, such as Bruno Mars and Post Malone.

PRG reprised its role, providing a full 360° technical delivery on the BIG BEAST stage. The supply included a vast lighting inventory of over 2,500 IP-rated fixtures; more than 400 L-Acoustics cabinets throughout the stage and delay towers, as well as DiGiCo consoles and FOH and monitors; and all LED, cameras, servers, and video control.

“T he stage has broken world records thanks to the vast size and ambition of the technical design, and this requires world-class planning in every single department the project touches, from logistics and project planning to our crewing and event services,” commented Richard Gorrod, PRG’s Lighting Production Manager for the event.

Yvonne Donnelly Smith, Director of Sales, PRG UK, added: “This is the third year that PRG has collaborated with the festival teams on this stage. With this experience, the PRG team can anticipate the inevitable curve balls that a largescale outdoor site with constantly changing acts, band riders, and climate may throw our way. Our ability to foresee this and arrive with contingency planning and solutions means that the team are more than prepared to tackle this challenge.”

The company also provided a projection solution for the MDLBEAST statue in MDLTOWN. In all, a staggering 284 tonnes of equipment was deployed using 500 hoists and 3,800m of truss, which was all supplied, installed and managed by PRG’s rigging team.

Calling on a 150-strong army of crew drawn from across PRG’s EMEA network, the company again assembled its global forces to deliver this huge project, with thousands of man days put into the planning, build, show days and load-out.

“We’re an ideal partner because we have a regional presence,” commented Donnelly Smith. “In delivering the show, we take elements from all our different depots. We create a bespoke team for a bespoke project. Drawing upon Team PRG’s breadth of expertise and wealth of resources, this team brings huge added value to the festival and its production team.”

‘EXPERTS IN THEIR FIELDS’

MediaPro International was another returning supplier, this year providing turnkey technical solutions for the DANCE BEAST and DOWN BEAST stages, the VIB Polygon stage [which you can read more about in TPMEA #39], as well as environmental lighting throughout the site, and the site-wide PA, which was used to broadcast general announcements and audio from some of the festival’s stages.

The main change to MediaPro’s brief this year was a new design for the DANCE BEAST stage, conceived by Alex Reardon of Silent House. MediaPro COO, Shaam Pudaruth talked TPMEA through the creative process. “This year’s design from Silent House was very interesting technically,” he commented. “The stage elements in the roof required dedicated attention because they were automated on Kinesys hoists. It took quite a few pre-production meetings and discussions to go from the first renders and technical drawings to having the final approved Vectorworks file of the stage.”

With several stakeholders on the DANCE BEAST alone, communication was key to