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Two months before the industry went into lockdown, Stageco France renewed its acquaintance with the generous group of singers, musicians, actors and comedians known as Les Enfoirés.

The giant Christmas tree and its garlands of lights had barely disappeared when Stageco France loaded in at the AccorHotels Arena in Bercy, Paris for the first big production of the year: a series of concerts by Les Enfoirés from which all profits were donated to Les Restos du Coeur, the humanitarian charity founded by the late French comedian and actor Coluche.

In common with all previous Les Enfoirés events, Stageco’s main responsibility was to build a 1,100m² podium on several levels with

a 500m² portion on wheels called ‘tripodes’. This enabled the main part to be installed in the centre of the arena so that the production could be rigged up simultaneously without being hindered by the imposing podium.

Once the rigging was set up and the back of the arena had been cleared, place has been cleared at the back of the room, it two forklifts and the entire backstage team to push the podium into its required spot to the centimetre. This left two sides to be built, taking the scenery to the full width of the venue.

On each side, Stageco’s team created two complex levels with a pair of tunnels below them to provide emergency access for the public in case of an emergency evacuation, as well as serving as a gateway for performers and technicians. At the end of the build, the crew added the front of house riser and proscenium ramps, and mounted crash barriers to follow the shape of the front of the stage.

The project was managed for Stageco France by Thierry Nataf with R&D input from Dirk Van Der Goor. On-site, Olivier Daulon led a team of three supervisors, using four semi-trailer loads of equipment to install the structures over three days (with an overnight and morning load-out). Stageco’s crew were assisted by a team of local scaffolders and forklift operators.

enfoires.fr