Mojo Barriers UK Supplies Red Carpet Season
This red carpet season, Mojo Barriers was called upon to supply just short of 1km of barriers to many of the season’s biggest awards ceremonies.
Kicking off the season in style, Mojo supplied the 2017 MTV EMAs and went on to supply the National Television Awards 2018, the 71st British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), the 2018 Brit Awards and the inaugural Global Radio Awards.
Along with stage barriers, Mojo also supplied almost 250m of its specially designed High Fence which created 2.4m of height to section off secure and private VIP areas. Mojo also supplied heras fencing, channel barriers, met barriers and T Shield to ensure safety for both artists and attendees.
Mojo Barriers UK director Kevin Thorborn comments: “We’re proud to have worked on such a roll-call of prestigious events, and with the eyes of the media world on these prestigious award shows it was vital we supplied barriers that not only provided optimum security, but that also looked great.
“It’s been great to not only be working to strengthen our relationships with our existing awards clients, but to also forging new relationships as we work on new events introduced throughout 2018.”
Mojo Barriers Australia’s Sensational Installation at Spotless Stadium
Mojo Barriers Australia recently undertook one of the country’s largest stadium field cover installations, with over 15,000m₂ being installed for Sensation at Spotless Stadium, Sydney Showground, November 2017.
Sensation, the biggest open-air festival in Australia this year, was a great success, and protecting the valuable sports surface was of critical importance as Spotless Stadium is the home of Sydney’s professional cricket team Sydney Thunder and the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants, part of the Australian Football League. Mojo installed a complete Supatrac system to ensure the best possible pitch protection. It took 34 truck movements to freight the equipment in and out of the stadium and over 850 man hours to install and remove.
The Mojo team installed over 15,000m₂ of 100% white Supatrac, along with over 500m of aluminium Mojo Barrier in a ‘D’ configuration. Since launching as a supplier of Supatrac in January of this year, Mojo Barriers is now able to provide both barrier and stadium floor covering as a combined offering. To further protect the stadium pitch at Sydney Showground, the team installed a layer of Enkamat under the flooring to provide additional protection at the areas with the highest footfall and crowd density.
As well as being on-site during the event, the Mojo team managed the daily installation and removal of the aluminium ground protection products during the stage build, and worked closely with the festival organisers and stadium groundskeeper to ensure optimum crowd barrier configurations and pitch protection.
Craig Edwards, General Manager of Mojo Barriers Australia comments: “It was great to be able to showcase our logistical capabilities installing Supatrac and barrier as a combined service, and to be instrumental in one of the largest stadium field covers in Australia makes us particularly proud. Pitch covers are usually a combination of a variety of products; however we supplied 100% white Supatrac to Sensation to ensure the same high quality product throughout the entire stadium.
“Not only did our team need to ensure the products were installed to the highest standard for the biggest festival Australia has seen in three years, but due to it being hosted in such a busy stadium, the condition of the turf post-Sensation was critical with the upcoming sporting schedule.”
Joshua Green, Sensation Event Manager from Phoenix Entertainment Live said “The Supatrac product is the way of the future for stadiums, the product doesn’t leave indentations on the turf and a sporting event can be held the next day. Supatrac is an efficient product to install and remove, with 15,000m2 installed in under eight hours there was minimum impact to production load-in – and it was even quicker on the load out. Coupling the supply of flooring and stage barrier products with Mojo delivered further efficiencies and made for a smooth and flexible operation.
“The aluminium and Enkamat combination was also highly effective. We managed to load in over 50 tonnes of steel for the stage and production build with four 135 foot boom lifts and two 60 tonne cranes operating for five days. With heavy production on the aluminium and 30,000 patrons on the Supatrac it is remarkable that none of the turf required replacing after the event – this is a great result for the Sydney Showground. Supatrac is the benchmark for stadium shows to minimise impact on the pitch.“
Mojo Barriers appoints New Budapest Distributor
A range of Mojo Barriers aluminium crowd safety barriers are now based in Budapest with the announcement of a new Mojo distributor giving convenient, cost effective barrier rental for festival organisers and tours coming to Eastern Europe, November 17th, 2017.
A stock of Mojo Barriers will be permanently located in Budapest for rental and it has already been hired out to create the front of stage barrier for the Gorillaz concert, 13th November in Budapest, Papp Laszlo Arena.
Mojo’s project and touring manager Stanley Jilesen states:
“With the expanding live events market in Hungary and Eastern Europe, Mojo Barriers is proud to support organisers with local resource to help keep their events safe. Having worked with Sziget Festival for several years we are delighted to work with the innovators in this region pushing for higher standards.”
The new Hungarian distributorship is the company’s 12th along with the international offices in Netherlands, UK, USA and Australia. Growing this global network strengthens the ability to support world tours with local resources whilst also making it easy for festivals and concerts in the region to hire the range of barriers.
Dániel Benis, Sziget production director, comments:
“We wanted to deliver our events to the highest of international production standards, particularly when it came to the safety of our audience, artists and crew. Our experience with Mojo Barriers has been very positive so we are delighted to be able to offer their products to other events in the region.”
Mojo Barriers celebrates 25 years with Lowlands Festival
2017 was a landmark celebration for the organisers and suppliers of Lowlands Festival, where Mojo Barriers has kept crowds and artists safe at all 25 editions, August 17th – 20th, 2017.
A 60,000 sell out crowd were in attendance for a wide range of artists including Mumford & Sons, Iggy Pop, The XX, Cyprus Hill and Bastille across six stages. This year the main two Alpha and Bravo stages were newly designed and manufactured, creating impressive focal points on the creatively designed Biddinghuizen site.
Mojo Barriers account manager Erwin Sprenger states:
“This year is really special to see with all of the innovations on the festival and the 25th celebrations. I have worked on 17 Lowlands Festivals and even with all of the site developments this year it is one of the easiest projects I manage, thanks to the efficiency of the festival management team and local crews. We supply 600m of equipment but only two Mojo co-ordinators are required to manage the installation.”
In addition to Mojo’s aluminium front-of-stage barrier, a range of special corner barriers, mega-gates, line-up-gates and Gatekeeper turnstiles were installed across the site. The company also supplies its plastic Bar Barrier system for concessions and cable ramps.
Mojo Barriers Australia Supplies Lorde on Cockatoo Island
As the exclusive agents in New South Wales for PRO-STAGE, Mojo Barriers Australia supplied staging and risers in addition to stage barriers to Nova’s Red Room Presents Lorde on Cockatoo Island, 7th July 2017.
Promoted by popular local radio station, Nova, 1,200 lucky fans were awarded tickets to Lorde’s concert which took place at a secret venue; Cockatoo Island’s Turbine Hall. The venue originally served as a ship building yard and dates back to the 1850’s, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This was Mojo’s second event as distributors for Pro Stage in New South Wales for this client and at this location, following a Justin Bieber live performance where Mojo supplied media platforms and risers.
For Lorde’s performance, Mojo Barriers supplied barrier for front of stage and front of house, along with emergency exit doors. Mojo also supplied a Pro Stage System for main stage at 1.4M in height, with a large access ramp and a tired Front of House Podium.
Being on a small island in the middle of Sydney Harbour gave its own specific challenges as Mojo Barriers Australia’s project manager Sheena Edwards explains:
“The only way to reach Cockatoo Island is by catching a ferry across the harbour, which does present challenges when trying to get equipment to the site. All suppliers are ferried over from Sydney, however due to the size of the barge only one truck can fit at a time. Suppliers are ferried one by one and therefore a very tight production schedule had to be maintained to ensure we didn’t miss our scheduled time slot and create delays for on-site crew waiting for equipment to arrive.
“Cockatoo Island is a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site and as we were working inside a listed building, we were required to be extremely careful when loading and unloading to ensure the building was not damaged by equipment or crew.”
Mojo Barriers increase presence at Glastonbury Festival
For the 13th year Mojo Barriers supported the Glastonbury Festival, expanding their service to the world-famous event and introducing new systems to improve audience safety, 22-25 June, 2017
Once again 150,000 ticket holders made their way to Worthy Farm at Pilton, Somerset to enjoy performances from the likes of Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Lorde and even Jeremy Corbyn joining hundreds of other acts spread across the 1,100 acre site.
Mojo supplied aluminium stage barriers to 16 of the stages at Glastonbury Festival 2017, delivering a total of 1,400 metres across the site, including at the new Death Metal stage in the Shangri La area.
Mojo Barriers’ project manager Jim Gaffney has been a Glastonbury supplier for nearly quarter of a century and he has been at the core of developing the barrier configurations at the festival over the years, with 2017 no different. New for this year were 15 Line-up Gates and one Mega Gate in the south-east corner of the arena at the entrance leading to the campsite, which reduced the queuing at that bottleneck.
Mojo once again installed secondary barrier systems on the festival’s two biggest stages: – The Pyramid Stage and Other Stage. The Pyramid Stage secondary system was introduced a few years’ ago to help cope with the increased capacity for that area, whereas the Other Stage barrier system came in last year when changes were made to open up sight lines for the audience.
Jim Gaffney, Mojo Barriers’ UK senior account manager, said: “The new gates we introduced at the south east corner worked perfectly and eradicated the problems that have occurred there in the past.
“The secondary systems for the Pyramid Stage and Other Stage once again gave the audience a safer event and also allowed security staff more access to the audience.”
Jerry Milichip was the site manager for the Pyramid Stage this year. Jerry has overseen many events that Mojo Barriers have supplied so played a pivotal role in the smooth delivery of the barriers.
“Jerry and our crews work very well together,” said Jim. “He understands the way we work and why we do certain things because of his experience with barriers. Having him in a senior role was a huge help as he had made all the ground preparations we needed and logistical details like having enough forklifts at the right time to make our installation quick and efficient.”
Mojo Barriers at Hellfest
Mojo Barriers introduced its Gatekeeper temporary event turnstile system to Hellfest for the first time, June 2017, along with Mojo aluminium stage barriers keeping crowds safe.
Festival rock fans descended on Clisson, France for Hellfest Summer Open Air, enjoying performances from headliners Linkin’ Park, Deep Purple, Aerosmith and many more.
For its sixth year working with the festival, Mojo supplied over 800 meters of stage barriers, along with 200 meters of bar barriers. For the first time, the company installed 17 Gatekeepers to speed up entry to the festival site. To ensure smooth ingress, Mojo supported Intellitix, who integrated its RFID technology into the Gatekeepers for scanning wristbands at the entrances, enabling the fans to be ushered into the festival site more quickly and efficiently.
The Gatekeeper intelligent portable turnstiles link to a central computer system, which gives accurate capacity data and real time counting. It also incorporates full scanning capabilities and is compatible with any scanning methods.
Mojo Barriers Download Triple
Mojo Barriers was contracted to install over 2,000m of front of stage barriers and bar barriers at three Download Festivals in the UK, France and Spain, June 2017.
Each country’s Live Nation division were the promoters and clients, bringing in Mojo to keep rock fans safe through three days of performances by the world’s top rock bands.
It was a welcome return to Donington Park’s Download weekend, June 9th to 11th, in the UK for Mojo with Jim Gaffney, heralding Jim’s return to the company as a senior account manager. Jim explained:
“I have managed the design and installation of the stage barriers at Download Festival since it began in 2003, where Mojo Barriers has always been the system of choice. I enjoy a great relationship with the Festival Republic team supporting Live Nation, it’s always been a high priority for Melvin Benn and John Probyn to deliver a safe festival. We have a lot of planning discussions to look at the crowd dynamics and create the best barrier design.
“We have developed a very particular barrier configuration for the main stage, accounting in particular for the sloping ground stage right, the very wide sight line, along with the need for the incoming productions to get easy access to the front of house. While very good natured, we also considered this is a very boisterous audience who like to get their mosh pits and circles going, all of which led us to a unique lay-out. Our primary front of stage curved barrier has a central thrust back to front of house, and two secondary “arms” that allow the security improved access to the audience. The layout also allows the audience a choice of areas and a safe event without being too restrictive.
“This year we also had to accommodate Aerosmith’s 15m thrust coming off the front of the mainstage, which meant looking at the downstage edge curves very carefully to avoid any pinch points, while retaining the original width of the thrust. This is where experience becomes invaluable. The pit for security personnel was also slightly deeper, because of the thrust, but the fact that the festival management had invested in putting down hard standing in front of the stage since the previous years’ festival meant our load in and out were much easier, with less ground damage from plant to deal with.”
Also joining the Mojo Barriers UK team at Download was Costa Chaparov as crew chief. Jim and Costa have worked together for many years and, with Mojo this summer, they have already managed barrier installations at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hull and the Old Trafford Manchester One Love memorial concert at very short notice.
Over 1,200m of aluminium stage barrier was deployed in unique layouts at all five stages and around front of house towers, camera platforms and assisted viewing platforms. Mojo also supplied over 200 meters of Bar barrier to the various bars and concessions around the whole site giving their staff a secure working environment.
Simultaneously on mainland Europe it was the first time Mojo Barriers had supplied 750m of barriers and 400m of plastic bar barriers to the Paris festival. Stanley Jilesen project managed the planning and delivery of six trucks of equipment across five stages with two Mojo supervisors completing installation in just a day and a half, with the assistance of local crew.
Igor Dawidowicz, from Live Nation SAS France comments: “Everything went very well and your team is just great! Honestly, we all feel the difference between your work and other companies.”
Stanley will also project manage the 400m of Mojo stage barriers to the new Spanish edition of Download two weeks later.
Mojo Supply Feyenoord Victory Parade
Mojo Barriers ensured over 150,000 fans could celebrate in style when Feyenoord won its first Eredivisie title in 18 years.
Six trailers and 24 Mojo crew installed over 1,750m of crowd barriers including 27 mega exits, high fencing and barrier corners in the centre of Rotterdam in preparation for Feyenoord’s victory parade. Feyenoord’s first Dutch title win since 1999, came after a defeat by Excelsior on 7th May, in which the title could have been claimed.
Mojo Barriers’ Erwin Sprengers explains:
“Feyenoord could have won the league on the 7th May, so we were called in to ensure crowd safety at the victory parade, which took place in central Rotterdam. The night before the match, we installed 1,750m of crowd barriers which lined the main roads and secured the government building where the local Mayor is located. With numerous big screens and players on the Mayor’s balcony, we created 11 crowd zones to limit surges and closed the main road and tram route in preparation. Following Feyenoord’s defeat, we had to de-rig throughout the night without there being an event.
“With the Dutch league title race coming down to the final day of the season at the Feyenoord V Heracles game, we re-installed all the kit in preparation for their win. With Feyenoord being crowned champions, the atmosphere was incredible and the victory parade attracted over 150,000 fans who all took to the streets of Rotterdam to celebrate with their team and see them lift the Eredivisie shield. It was a pleasure to work with Livetime Productions’ production manager, Maarten Lamers.”
Mojo Supply The Europa League Final Celebrations
As thousands of Ajax fans gathered to watch the Europa League final, Mojo Barriers ensured crowd safety within Amsterdam’s famous Museum Square.
With previous events in the park attracting crowd problems, The Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, wanted to create a safe and special environment for fans to watch the Europa League final between AFC Ajax and Manchester United.
Mojo Barriers was entrusted to create fan zones for 80,000 fans at Museum Square, which included multiple big screens to watch the game and a victory stage next to Rijksmuseum. Mojo’s team installed five trucks of material including 750 straight barriers, 27 mega exits, 120 specials, 40 police gates and 40 line-up gates.
Mojo Barriers’ Erwin Sprengers comments: “I’m extremely proud of the whole Mojo team who delivered quality and speed, and pulled together to help ensure the event was a huge success.”
Client: Livetime Productions. Production manager Maarten Lamers.