HELLFEST FROM HOME

CLISSON’S ALTERNATIVE FOR 2021

STAGEC O FRANCE

STAGEC O FRANCE Not even a full-scale pandemic could prevent one of Europe’s

biggest heavy metal festivals from strutting its leather-clad stuff. When a second ‘quiet year’ threatened to silence Hellfest in 2021, Arte TV – and Stageco France – came to the rescue.

The story behind the cancellation of Hellfest’s 2020 edition mirrored similar issues that have affected so many summer events since COVID-19 took hold. Despite taking out insurance to cover pandemic-related cancellations, the broker refused to compensate the festival organisers. Out of pocket, the Hellfest team was forced to reschedule the event for the summer of 2021. However, last February, it was announced that the award-winning event would once again fail to materialise, due to “uncertainties about the health situation and the latest government regulations”. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and the way forward for one of Europe’s biggest metal festivals was television.

For three days in June, French TV channel Arte took over multiple stages on the classic festival site in Clisson, in Loire-Atlantique, to deliver Hellfest From Home – a virtual event filmed for broadcast, free of charge, to its faithful metal fans’ television screens.

Well versed in Hellfest’s traditions, through several years of association as a main vendor, Stageco France was on-site in Clisson for a full nine days to supply and build structures as Kevin De Meyer led a team of five supervisors.

The main stage roof, said project manager Thierry Nataf, was a transparent model that was specified to maintain full vision of the surroundings for the purposes of the Arte TV shoot.

Said Nataf: “For Hellfest to be absent for two years was an incredible shock for everyone, particularly as its popularity had been increasing with every edition, so the TV broadcast – transmitted over three parts, a week after filming – was a worthy Plan B for everyone.

“The event is now being prepared for a big comeback in 2022, with an extended 15th anniversary edition from June 17th-26th... keep the faith!”