Fatboy Slim at Zero Gravity, Dubai

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FATBOY SLIM AT ZERO GRAVITY, DUBAI

WITH A MUSICAL CAREER THAT INCLUDES NUMEROUS NUMBER ONES AND MULTIPLE AWARDS, FATBOY SLIM IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST RESPECTED DJS. THEREFORE, IT WILL COME AS NO SURPRISE THAT PAUL MCGEE, EVENTS MANAGER OF DUBAI BEACH CLUB, ZERO GRAVITY, PUT HIM AT THE TOP OF HIS ARTIST WISH LIST, AS TPMEA DISCOVERS...

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What might come as a surprise is that it took 13 months for his wish to finally come true, with Fatboy Slim finally headlining the sell out Zero Gravity Beach Festival on 27 April 2018.

“This event was the pinnacle of my career to date. There are not many people in the world that can say that they have been part of a team that put 7,000 people on a beach for Fatboy Slim,” said Barton, proudly.

After an agreement was made with Fatboy Slim’s management, the first challenge was to find a suitable date. An available Wednesday in Fatboy Slim’s busy schedule did not suit Zero Gravity, whose guests prefer to party at the weekend.

Then came Dubai summertime, where temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius make an outdoor event impossible. Talks continued, New Year’s Eve 2017 was mentioned but unfortunately never materialised, before an April

date was finally agreed.

The next 6 weeks were spent going over technical and hospitality riders with the proverbial ‘fine technical tooth comb’ and tendering for quotes from suppliers, before contracts were awarded to Fruition Events for infrastructure and Delta Sound for the full AV solution.

Fruition Events had already impressed Zero Gravity, providing scaffold structures at 2 previous events. As a new company, their ‘kit’ is brand new, combined with experienced heads that know what they’re doing in terms of both infrastructure and in music events… Before relocating to Dubai, Managing Partner Warren Barlow was involved in planning and site management on the UK festival circuit.

Overseeing the build from Zero Gravity was Outlet Manager Selvamani Inbaranjan, aka Inba. “Perhaps the biggest challenge facing both

Zero Gravity and Fruition Events was building the stage, VIP platform, FOH deck and 160m of temporary bars without affecting the day-today operations of Dubai’s busiest beach club,” explained Inba.

To cause minimum disruption, Fruition’s Warren Barlow, Paul Barton and Kevin Greener planned the build schedule piece-by-piece, working nightshifts to complete one section at a time. That way, guests wouldn’t be greeted by unfinished structures, materials or machinery the next day.

All of this was made possible by using Fruition’s ‘NetDeck’ product, which uses a third less material than a conventional scaffold structures, is quicker to assemble yet has a higher health and safety standard. For both the stage and VIP deck substructures were created, reducing both scaffold and transportation costs by approximately 40%, which also made a

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positive environmental impact.

The entire overlay build was completed in 5 shifts, including carpets, cabins and perimeter fencing. And the entire build was dismantled in 24 hours with zero impact on the daytime business of the beach club.

Delta Sound installed Zero Gravity’s own in-house L-Acoustics PA system, so again, no introductions were necessary between the production team and the venue. Dubai MD Andy Jackson also worked for Delta at the Big Beach Boutique in Brighton back in 2002 so the company is also familiar with Fatboy Slim himself.

For this event, Production Manager Jon Pusey recommended using a K2 system with 2 hangs of 12 K2 and 16 SB28 subwoofers along the front of the stage, with an Optocore system linking the in-house PA. In Pusey’s words, “L-Acoustics systems satisfy most riders, and the FBS crew were very happy with what they saw… and heard.”

Zero Gravity is situated on a seaside

strip containing numerous 5-star hotels and residences. For this reason, the low frequency noise level was controlled with a cardioid set up for the sub-woofers. For the main PA, Soundvision prediction software was used to keep the coverage area tight to the audience and the upper boxes set to 70 degrees to reduce sideways sound spillage.

Lighting, video and special effects were supplied through PRG and Matrix Laser. The FBS lighting rider included 16 Martin By Harman Atomic 3000’s, 23 4-Lite molefays, 18 Claypaky a.Leda B-EYE K20’s, 18 Claypaky Sharpys, 16 Martin MAC Viper Performances and 16 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes. A 12m x 7m 6mm Pitch LED screen was paired with cameras on the stage and DJ riser.

2 30W Green Lasers were supplied and added to the in-house 20W KVant RGB Lasers. Finally, Special effects were covered by 8 MagicFX CO2 jets, 6 MagicFX Flamaniacs and 2 MagicFX Stadium Shot Extremes loaded with streamers.

The rest, as they say, is history. The build went to plan, both sound and light were spectacular, Fatboy Slim was as entertaining as ever, 7,000 people danced on the sand until 3am and there were no notable noise complaints from the neighbours. And finally, a pristine Zero Gravity beach club was back open the following morning to welcome another 2,000 guests for their popular SuperNatural pool and beach brunch.

“There was a massive amount of preparation required to pull this off. The event ran without any hiccups and I’m proud to be given a once in a lifetime opportunity to put this event together,” said a smiling Paul McGee. ”The question is, what’s next?” Photos: vklybe.tv www.fatboyslim.net www.0-gravity.ae www.fruitionevents.ae www.matrix-laser.com www.deltalive.com www.prg.com/ae/en/our-technology/scenic

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