A Sutherland Shire company which specialises in bespoke staging solutions provided the platform for the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games held last week at the Gold Coast.
Stagekings, an Australian owned and operated company, delivered the sets and staging for the opening ceremony which was seen by more than 1.3 billion people worldwide.
Established in 2015, Stagekings won the contract in a competitive tender process managed by the Commonwealth Games Ceremonies delivery partner Jack Morton Worldwide.
Stagekings managing director, Jeremy Fleming, said it was a proud achievement for such a young company.
“As a relatively young company we’re extremely proud to have beaten out a number of international providers and be chosen to provide the staging for an event that showcased Australia to a global audience,” Mr Fleming said.
“We were thrilled to deliver the staging and sets for the opening ceremony which was seen by over 1.3 billion people.”
After many months of planning the Stagekings team built a workshop on the Gold Coast that employed more than 70 local carpenters, welders, scenic artists, scaffolders and labourers to work with eight shire-based crew to deliver the massive project on time.
Stagekings built most of the structures audiences saw on television from the the Royal Box, to the speech and flag stages, to the sand centre-piece, the sand surround, the parade path, mobile lifeguard tower, the beach showers, lecterns, 1800 lorikeets, roller coaster harnesses, migaloo’s buggy and even the glowing globe that Jack Thompson used to open the show.
The massive set used:
- 8900m2 of plywood, an area equivalent of 1.2 rugby fields
- 24.88km of sustainably sourced timber framing
- 3267m2 of printed vinyl for the athlete’s parade path
- 410 tonne of Gold Coast colour-matched sand (24 double semi trailer loads).
The purpose-built set at Carrara Stadium took 45 days to build on the field and took a crew of 75 just 30 hours to dismantle.
