Global Citizen 2016

Global Citizen introduced its festival to India for the first time in the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai on November 19th, with Stageco extending its support in the wake of the festival’s successful 2016 New York edition. Headlined by Stageco client Coldplay, Global Citizen India was co-produced by DPS and its Indian partner, communica¬tion and entertainment company Wizcraft, which previously produced Michael Jackson’s India debut in 1996. The ball started rolling around the middle of August with the first conversations, so there wasn’t a huge amount of time in which to plan forward. The equipment was shipped out to Mumbai on September 20th and we were on-site by November 3rd to begin the build. A 25m wide x 15m high 4-Tower festival stage with PA wings, Stageco’s structure was the bedrock for an above average amount of scenic elements created by Wizcraft, who took responsibility for the overall technical production. A regular festival roof was the most appropriate and flexible solution to adapt to a design that was still being progressed when our materials were in transit. The brief also included four towers in the field to accommodate lighting, delays and video, and two mix risers. The MMRDA site was unusual in that it was an open space in the middle of the banking district – it was certainly very unlike the kind of stadium scenario we have gotten used to. The first impression, as always when you first arrive, was that the heat was so intense. Doing a job in searing temperatures of around 36°C every day really took it out of the crew. However, one of the great things about involving Stageco in a project like this is that we have such a wide experience of working in some of the most unusual and exotic locations, with people from all over the world. That’s really invaluable.