Romania - On 25 May at the main national stadium of Romania, Arena Națională in Bucharest was the setting for Golden Generation vs. Legends of the World (Generația de Aur vs Legendele Lumii). The spectator stands with a capacity of 55,000 were completely filled with football fans. For the entertainment and ceremonial parts of the event, JSA provided and installed special stage structures.
The original design and engineering of the stage platform structure was created by JSA partner Adrian Vișenoiu. The customer and organiser of the technical part of the production was the Salt Box Studio agency. Since there was little time before the event, it was decided not to manufacture special structures, but to install all structures based on universal and quickly available Layher systems.
A special feature of the installation of stage structures was the time factor. Before the start of the match, the stage and musical equipment had to be removed in 15 minutes, and after the end of the match, a platform for awarding the winners needed to be installed in five minutes. At the same time, it was important to preserve the surface of the playing field from damage while the platforms were moving.
To accomplish these tasks, the basic concept was the modularity of the stage, and the supports of the separate parts were installed on special ‘soft’ wheels. To create better mobility of the staircase blocks, aluminium Layher TwixBeam were used in their structure.
In addition, an interesting engineering solution by Adrian Vișenoiu was a special elevator inside the central stage module, which was assembled from standard aluminium trusses and chain hoists. With the help of this mechanism, during the show, the singer Loredana Groza was effectively raised to the surface of the stage to perform the main song of the opening ceremony of the football competition. The game was broadcast live on many Romanian television and Internet channels.