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LIVE July - August 2013
Singapore
Singapore gets Social
If you have ever sent a tweet, updated a status on Facebook or video on YouTube you would have definitely heard about the Singapore Social Concerts. Rock, pop, soul AND Gangnam style?! What more could a concert ask for? For a weekend in May, American rock icons, Aerosmith, YouTube sensation PSY along with breakout pop star Carly Rae Jepsen and soul-rap performer Cee Lo Green rocked out to a crowd of 20,000 hyper (and hyperventilating) fans at what has been considered one of the biggest music events ever in Singapore.
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he Singapore Social Concerts, held at The Meadow, Gardens by The Bay, were meant to be post-award gigs to the inaugural Social Star awards which saw 288 awards handed out online to the most popular stars and brands in social media. However, organised by Starcount and Digitales Pte Ltd, with the site and production managed by Craig Burridge’s team from Dreadnaut Creative, the weekend of beats proved to be a music extravaganza that could hold its own while being broadcast to more than 140 countries and streamed live on YouTube.
The day before the concert CSP's System Engineer, Rudi Bin Kasim (left) and Freelance Audio Engineer, Zoul Mohamed take a time out to pose for pictures.
With the guideline, the biggest and the best show possible, Production Manager, Craig Burridge designed a (in his words), “Pretty f****** massive” stage with 35 tonnes of gear flown. “I started planning the shows based on a reasonable Singapore style festival budget but the organisers insisted on it being bigger.” says Craig. 2 months of planning, 4 days of set-up, a SGD1.2 million budget and 250 crew later, bigger is exactly what they got. The show almost had to go back to an all Singapore production when the Australian based roof was delayed for over a week. Craig explains, “When the roof finally came we set it up with the 7 feet high stage and all the rigging within 40 hours. We worked around the clock from 4am on a Sunday morning till 5pm on a Thursday evening to get it all done, but once the set-up was completed, it looked great.” Helping Craig bring his design to life yet again, CSP Productions provided audio and lighting along with Showtec Communications supplying 4 LED screens totalling 250sqm, Word Stages supplied the roof, ETG (Asia) Pte Ltd supplying cameras, BMC supplying Backline Equipment, MediaCorp supplying
video OB truck while Sin Hiap Mui supplied the stage and stage set for the concerts. Soon Heng supplied all the tentage and hoarding that made the site look great and housed all the back stage offices, catering, dressing rooms, Media, and the Google/ YouTube hangout spaces. UE Power supplied 8 generators without a hiccup! Transerve supplied 12 PortaCabins. VIO Com and Singnet supplied 2 x 300mb/s and 4 x 50mb/s internet connections. S-Lite Event Support supplied 2km of barricades and fencing. Resembling a semi-family, the crews from Dreadnaut, CSP, Showtec, BMC, Sin Hiap Mui, ETG and Soon Heng have made quite a name for themselves in the Singapore concert scene. When asked what made the companies gel so well, Craig coyly quips, “They do it the way I like it.” With the pop acts and headline act Cee Lo Green performing on day one, and Aerosmith performing a full length gig on day two, the set-up was based largely on Aerosmiths' specifications for lighting. Craig explains, “Aerosmith has very high standards and it’s