 1st Red Bull Flugtag Flies High at Hyde Park This‘Loony Event’, which was hosted by Tess Daly and Brian Dowling, involved 40 teams launching their homemade flying machines off a 6 metre high runway into the Serpentine, cheered on by thousands of enthusiastic onlookers. Attended by an estimated 150,000 people, who watched the 40 teams of mad participants launching themselves in home-built ‘flying machines’ from the huge floating runway, the event was the climax of 18 months of planning and development, which involved over 110 Red Bull staff! For all involved, it was a truly unique experience that stretched all boundaries and norms. “As long as I live, I will never forget today!” commented Hurran Becs, the female pilot of ‘Miss Piggy’. “The whole family have been preparing for months for this event and it’s been a dream come true just to be part of it!” At the centre of the serpentine was the main runway, built by Star Hire, that was an impressive 40m long by 10m wide and left the contestants, along with their wacky flying machines, a 6m drop into the water. To ensure all the crowds could see the action in the park, which is covered in trees, four big screens with relay sound systems were used. The biggest of these was suspended on a 16.5m high ‘truss bridge’ above the runway. Louise Taylor, Red Bull’s event manager said:“This project has taken us 18 months to plan and was the core of our marketing campaign this year. It kicked off to the public back in April, with an announcement phase to would-be competitors, which attracted over 10,000 entries and was followed by a second wave campaign in July to promote the event. We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the public and are extremely proud of the work of our core production team, which was led by Nick Fisher and Susan Marr. The key contractors which included Star Hire, Chrysalis Television, XL Video and SSE to name but a few, did an amazing job in turning the park into the dream setting for the Red Bull Flugtag.” There were several challenges for that Star Hire team, not-least getting 15 articulated trucks of equipment into London’s busiest park and constructing the structure amidst a heat wave! A team of 10 crew (including 2 female riggers) transformed 5 kilometres of scaffold tube into the frame of the runway in 8 days. The frame-work was then covered in over 1,500 square metres of vinyl fabric to clad and brand it, so that by event day the runway looked resplendent in the waters of the serpentine. The access ramp and ‘runway’ structure weighed in at over 250 tonnes and Star Hire used 40 buoyancy tanks to float the it, whereby only 0.5m of it was under the water. There were eight concrete block anchors that could be raised and lowered from the runway, each weighing in at 1,600kgs. There were plenty of thrills, spills and hilarity as the 40 teams flew their dubiously aerodynamic machines, finishing with the ‘Miss Piggy’ team being declared overall winners, based on the style and length of their flight. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the sun that proved British eccentricity is alive and flying high. It is incredible to think that 40 teams put together by amateurs could pull the largest crowds that Hyde Park has ever seen! http://www.star-hire.com http://www.xlvideo.tv |