Perth’s new Optus Stadium has officially held it’s first concert event over the weekend. Over two back to back nights Ed Sheeran put on a stellar performance in front of a sell-out crowd. Even from last year, as tickets were sold out minutes from going on sale, it was always known that this tour was going to be big. So big, the tour around Australia and New Zealand has smashed the previous record held by Dire Straits for ticket sales. According to The West Australian*,
“The 18 dates around Australia and New Zealand have sold an incredible one million tickets to obliterate Dire Straits’ record, which had stood since their Brothers in Arms tour of 1986.”
With the success of his Perth shows now over, it sometimes hard to imagine the scale of putting together a concert, especially for the world’s biggest singers and bands. The behind the scenes effort from so many people that goes into creating such an amazing show from before, during and after the concert can sometimes go unnoticed. Event production staff work long days and nights in preparing the venue and stage for the upcoming shows.
To put it into perspective, United hired over 20 items of forklifts and access equipment for the Perth event. The sheer number of equipment needed for just the one event is impressive. It just goes to show the work involved by production companies in preparing venues for large events. Cat forklifts were used to provide the heavy-duty muscle in moving material around the stadium. This included stage materials, equipment, flooring to protect the stadium’s grass and portable toilets located throughout the stadium. The access equipment which included boom lifts, scissor lifts and telehandlers, was needed to assist the stage crew in the erecting the main stage including lighting.
Overall the equipment used for the event included;
- 2 x JLG ultra-telescopic boom lifts (1350 SJ and 1500 SJ)
- 2 x Haulotte Compact 12 DX rough terrain scissor lifts
- 2 x Haulotte telehandlers (HTL 3614 and HTL 4017)
- 2 x Cat 2.5T LPG forklifts
- 4 x Cat 3T LPG forklifts
- 6 x Cat 4-5T LPG forklifts
- 1 x Cat 7T diesel forklift
- 2 x Cat 2.5T hand pallet trucks
It’s great to see United once again being chosen for the supply of forklifts and access equipment for such a large event.
*The West Australian – 2nd March 2018