Fit for a King

ore than 20 million people tuned in to watch King Charles III’s Coronation on May 6, whilst thousands more lined the streets of London to try and catch a glimpse of the Coronation Procession featuring the newly crowned King and Queen.

More than 6,000 members of the UK Armed Forces participated in the historic Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The celebratory occasion featured two ceremonial processions. The first, The King’s Procession, was small compared to the larger Coronation Procession, which comprised a 1.42-mile route and more than 5,000 personnel performing ceremonial duties.

This extensive ceremonial operation was a show of celebration and pageantry and whilst the Coronation could only be delivered by adopting a joint agency approach and navigating a network of complex stakeholder maps, it was the UK events industry that delivered the expertise and infrastructure that enabled the historic day to take place.

Momentous Occasion

Identity, the live event agency, supported the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and many other stakeholders in delivering the prestigious event that took place at London’s Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.

In London, PTL, Halo Solutions, Sunbelt Rentals, ADI, and SES Group provided equipment and services to the Coronation event, ensuring those gathered in the capital had all they needed to safely enjoy the day either along the parade route or within one of many big screen viewing sites.

However, central London was not the only location to be hosting Coronation celebrations. The Royal Borough of Windsor was also a “go to” destination for Royal fans and those looking to experience the momentous period in history. It was the scene of much jubilation as residents and Royalists gathered on The Long Walk to enjoy a picnic and watch the Coronation action on big screens. But Windsor was also the location for a joyous star-studded Coronation Concert – broadcast live by the BBC – that featured a host of British and global superstars.

Ambitious Stage

Star Live was appointed by BBC Studios to deliver the infrastructure for the 20,000-capacity King’s Coronation Concert. The company worked alongside Chromatic Productions’ Steve Nolan and event designer

Coronation Concert

Stufish – the same team that delivered the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Party at the Palace celebrations in 2022 – to deliver an ambitious stage on Windsor Castle’s East Lawn.

Star Live secured the contract in spring 2023 and soon got to work. Once the stage design and technical solution were finalised, Star Live’s involvement increased to include all the production structures as well as the grandstand seating, Royal Box, accessible viewing platforms with lift access, and all television and camera platforms.

The company provided a bespoke, multitiered stage structure that formed a giant Union Jack, with multiple thrust and catwalk projections, the Royal Box, front-of-house control units, 5,300 seats in two grandstands, projector platforms, a Royal Retiring Room, delay towers, screen supports, and complex under-stage arrangements to house all the production equipment to keep the sight-lines open. Furthermore, the Coronation Concert stage was the result of 63 separate structural drawings and the entire project required a stage grid/roof weighing 85,000kg, 15,000kg of video and supporting truss, 22,000kg of lighting and supporting truss/rigging/cables, 4,000kg of audio, and 2,500kg of scenic mirrored cladding.

Minimise Impact

The key team members involved in this project were Star Live’s technical director Roger Barrett, projects director Gavin Scott and project manager Jay Neil. “It is fair to say building the Party at the Palace for the Jubilee was demanding… but creating a construction site at the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world is not without its challenges either,” Barrett explained. “Windsor Castle has never hosted an event like this before so extra special attention had to be paid to the battlement walls, stone staircase balustrades, staircase steps, and statues and the Royal golf course that the concert was built on!

“Given the site and the nature of the occasion, there were understandably additional levels of security in place. All Star Live crew working on-site cleared counter terrorism and Police checks. Working hours were also restricted to minimise the impact to residents at the Royal properties on the estate and trailer/ vehicle height was limited to 4.2 metres.”

Creative And Complex

“The creative keystone of the event was the open stage design that allowed the backdrop of Windsor Castle alongside the integration of the 180° video drum and the phenomenal projection work on the east face of Windsor castle,” Scott added. “Lifting the video drum to a trim height of 18.5m was always going to be the biggest challenge of our build. This was an incredibly unusual rigging operation and had to be millimetre perfect to pull off. No easy feat when you are dealing with a semi-circle of truss,

15,000kg of cantilevering video that needed to be lifted from the bottom of the supporting structure to achieve the show trim.

“The desire to minimise the structure meant we needed to design a stage supported using only four towers. Including the self-weight of the stage, those towers were supporting the best part of 130 tonnes of equipment so needed to be well-engineered. We modified our Titan stage to achieve this, stripping out a lot of the supporting structure creating an enormous, roofed ground support and opening up sight lines to the castle.

“Another key creative element was the incorporation of the large stone staircase (known by the Royal family as the golf staircase). The staircase balustrade and statues became part of the stage, and the fine scenic work by Blackfriars Staging and our new handrails were colour matched with the Yorkshire gritstone from which they are constructed. The finished performance level of the stage area aligned with the mid-landing of the staircase, creating a spectacular entrance route for the performing artists.”

Scott continued: “The technical stage design included a complex underworld system of monitor and control areas, quick changing rooms for dancers and multiple entrance/exit tunnels for artists and staff. To enable the many people working behind the scenes to move between stage left and right, the underworld routes were aligned with an existing ‘secret’ passageway under the stone staircase which became a critical path during the rehearsals and live performance.

“Everything was built with great care to ensure the existing features – including the lawn in the audience area – were kept in pristine condition.”

Operation Windsor

Peppermint Events, SES Group, Skymagic, NorthHouse Creative, Showforce, Terry Tew Sound and Light, CrowdLED, Event Hire UK, and Liteup were just some of the companies to provide equipment and services to ensure the Coronation Concert ran smoothly within the castle’s walls. However, HPower Group took responsibility for everything outside of Windsor Castle. It contracted Roadphone NRB, Charles Wilson, Qdos, Illumin8, Delta Sound, Sunbelt Rentals, LED Screen Hire, A1 Group, Focus, New Horizon Plastics, Event Site Design, OBH, John F Hunt, Provide Security, Vespasian, and Casablanca Hire amongst others for “Operation Windsor” – the collective name used by HPower for the delivery of Royal Windsor Horse Show, Royal Windsor Endurance, and all coronation activities, which were being delivered and loaded in at the same time.

Nick Brooks-Ward, operations director at HPower Group, explained: “Our first formal discussion was in December. We were asked to think about providing stewards for the walking route for the guests going into the concert, so we found the walking route and we found the stewards. Then, our involvement has just grown and grown.

“Now, we’re responsible for all the stewarding in Windsor, over the week, and all the infrastructure. Everything outside the castle walls is our responsibility.”

The Long Walk in Windsor is a key site in the town. As StandOut chats with Brooks-Ward, who takes a rare moment to drink a cup of tea, the site is buzzing with activity. When we chat, it is just a few days before the Coronation and The Long Walk is being prepped to welcome approximately 15,000 people on May 6 and 7. Local residents and Royal fans are being encouraged to bring picnics and watch the Coronation and the concert on big screens. Plus, the area will host a Coronation Big Lunch.

But more importantly, at 2.30pm on May 7, Brooks-Ward and his team will manage two huge queueing lanes – each with 10,000 people – which will search bags and check the tickets of those attending the Coronation Concert inside the castle grounds.

One of the queueing lanes is located on the Royal Windsor Horse Show site, which is why HPower was the natural choice to deliver vital infrastructure and services on behalf of the Royal Borough of Windsor and DCMS.

“We know the way the castle works, the Police inside the castle, and Thames Valley Police,” continued Brooks-Ward. “We have an event site inside the grounds of the castle, so everyone knows us. We have a good rapport with the Royal Borough, the castle, the Police, the Crown Estate, the Met Police, and we know everyone in those organisations and who to pick up the phone to.”

This is important, as rain has meant that Queen Victoria’s Review Ground is no longer suitable for accessible parking. But after two phone calls to the Crown Estate and Royal Borough, HPower managed to find an alternative site – Ascot Racecourse.

Lessons Learned

Brooks-Ward is the joint project director on Operation Windsor and is working alongside Madeleine Marston, also joint project director, Harry Guthrie, event operations, Event Site Design’s Theo Mortimer, and Chuck Crampton, technical director.

Together, they are responsible for delivering the site, which only seven months ago was a focal point for the Queen’s funeral. What did Brooks-Ward and his team learn from that experience?

“We learned a lot about the ground and where the culverts were, and we learned a lot about the movement of the public. Cambridge Gate became like Buckingham

Palace; it was a focus. So, this year, when we started this project, we said: ‘Let’s load people in through Park Street’. Then suddenly, we all drew back and said: ‘No. Let’s remember what happened, let’s load them through Brook Street and send them up the hill’.

“The other thing we have learned is that a huge amount of people came from Englefield Green and Ascot, so the crossroads at Albert Road was dangerous. We have put in huge traffic measures up there to stop the surge onto The Long Walk, and we’ve put additional fencing in too.”

Stand Out Moment

Temporary structures at the Royal Windsor Horse Show site – to be used by the King’s Troop and Household Cavalry for the horse show – are being utilised by the Police and emergency services working on the Coronation. It’s just one example of the collaborative approach that has been taken to planning and the use of valuable resources.

For example, whilst the BBC and Star Live de-rig the infrastructure used for the Coronation Concert, the Royal Windsor Horse Show will be in full swing. It has meant more important conversations about the use of shared land within the private grounds of the castle and another piece of work that HPower has had to undertake.

But what is Brooks-Ward looking forward to the most about the Coronation weekend and what does he believe will be the “stand out” moment? “Waiting for the concert guests to come out of the concert and to see if we’ve got the planning right for the egress,” he concluded. “Ingress is easy because it’s staggered, and we have people wandering in from 3pm. At 10pm, there will be a mass exodus, and have we got our plans, right? That’s the nervous bit. People are going to stream down the hill, God knows how many people will be in Windsor, and have we got people leaving the castle right? We’ll find out on Monday morning, and I’ll let you know.”