A demanding project from the outset, this year’s Autostadt (Automobile City) Summer Festival in Wolfsburg, Germany, featured the Cirque Nouveau Mobile where professional acrobats, actors, trapeze artists and musicians performed on several stages from June 23 until July 31. The organisers tasked Stageco Deutschland GmbH with the construction of a very specific stage – one that combined the look of a circus marquee with the technical requirements of a large-scale stage, especially with regard to rigging capacity. Furthermore, this construct was to be built on a floating pontoon. Together with IF Group, engineers for plane load-bearing structures, Stageco’s team developed a suitable concept, and planned and built the special components all within the space of 10 weeks. The final venue was not accessible for assembly and disassembly. This meant that 10 days were spent mounting the circus stage on to the 50m x 30m pontoon on the Mittelland Canal next to the Volkswagen power plant, before moving it to the eventual venue by barge. The stage construction – 33m high with a performance area of 1000m² – was fixed to the pontoon by means of 150 connecting links welded to the pontoon itself. Structural analysis showed the need for 400mm diameter steel cable anchoring, which could only be installed by crane. These cables were attached to 13.5 tonne clevis fasteners. A polyester fabric coated on both sides proved ideal for the roof construction, given its size and geometry. The 3,500m membrane weighed four tonnes. Foto 1 (c) Matthias Leitzke Fotos 2-3 (c) Mario Westphal
Stageco Worldwide