UK - The annual Hay Festival returned from 23 May - 2 June to the picturesque town in Powys, Wales attracting over 250K visitors.
Founded in 1987, Hay Festival Global has grown into one of the most celebrated literary charities in the world and delivers events with authors, thought leaders and artists from around the globe. This spring’s edition in Hay-on-Wye featured 800 conversations and performances with diverse voices and genres including best-selling novelists, pioneering scientists, influential politicians, comedians, musicians and innovative artists.
Stage Sound Services based in Cardiff worked closely with the production team and provisioned all the technical equipment and installation to the seven venues located throughout the site. The Stage Sound Services team have worked directly with the charity’s in-house team for the last three years delivering full technical support including staging, lighting, sound and video.
Milos M290 ground support truss formed the construction over the main Global Stage, the biggest venue on the site which accommodates an 1,800-seat capacity space, full video production, technical stage support and live video feed.
Stage Sound Services has been an Area Four Industries Direct UK customer for many years and has a large quantity of Milos rental truss in its inventory due to its popularity and market demand. They have also invested in several Milos roof structures which are extremely popular and deployed at various projects, especially over the summer months.
Milos M290 was selected due to its strong durable construction, and fast connection for quick, simple secure assembly and loading capacity. This was the chosen solution for the pinnacle stage to accommodate the rig and stage design in multiple back-to-back sessions featured on the Global Stage, which played host to some of the festival’s biggest names.
Gareth Rodgers, senior project manager at Stage Lighting Services who lead the installation team, said, “When faced with the challenge of designing a structure that could offer rigging positions for lighting, sound & LED wall whilst retaining a slimline profile Milos 290 was the obvious choice”
Some of the names that graced Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye’s Global Stage this year were Dame Judy Dench, Sebastian Coe, Stephen Fry, James Blunt and Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.
Theresa Gibson, head of marketing at Area Four Industries Direct UK said, “This was my first visit to the legendary Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye and it was fantastic to have the opportunity to experience its wide-ranging diverse programme from the latest releases by favourite authors to new ideas, lively debate, music and comedy catering for all appetites.
“The Global stage is an impressive pop-up space located in the most stunning surroundings and it was fabulous to see a large amount of Milos M290 truss utilised in the construction of the main stage structure accommodating so many legendary names over the festival period.
“There was such a great atmosphere and relaxed vibe at Hay, coupled with a very slick onsite logistics operation. It was great to have the chance to meet several of Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye’s Technical team and understand more about the comprehensive program and technical requirements the team at Stage Sound Services have provisioned at this prestigious world-renowned book festival.”
