ACE WORK IN COURT When beach volleyball came to Utrecht

STAGEC O N E D DERLAN

ACE WORK ON COURT

In a year virtually starved of beach volleyball, it was no surprise that this year’s King Of The Court tournament in Utrecht – home to The Netherlands’ largest following of the sport – reached new heights in popularity amongst the active, fun-loving student population.

After a successful trial event three years ago, the King of the Court series began hosting over 10,000 spectators and has been broadcast in over 200 countries.

Commissioned by Sightline BV, the series returned to Utrecht in September as the first international beach volleyball event after the worldwide pandemic, and to ensure that social distancing and general event safety was prioritised, Stageco Nederland worked with Sightline on the design of a new stadium integrating skyboxes to accommodate the limited audience of 400.

BUILDING

With project manager Henk Jan Luesink leading from the Lochem office and Jorrit van de Kolk heading the on-site operation for Stageco, the company built the stage in five days – and broke it down in three – using its local site crew and help from the office staff.

“Everyone was onboard for this so it was a unique experience for us all,” commented Luesink.

Staged between the 9th and 12th of September, King Of The Court 2020 will be remembered for countless exciting moments of skill, passion and good humour. Congrat-

ulations to the winners, Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer, who gave the audience a thrilling display of the best beach volleyball the world has to offer.

STREAMING

Stageco Nederland was also involved in a number of live events that were streamed online, such has been the pattern for most entertainment in 2020.

In the summer, Mojo Concerts hired the company to build a stage for its ‘Corona-proof’ Larger Than Live shows at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, featuring acts including Rolf Sanchez, Thyphoon, De Staat, Nielson, Jeugd van Tegenwoordig and Brennan Heart. The shows were able to welcome 2,400 audience members with a safe distance of 1.5m between them.

Q-Dance’s Defqon.1 festival returned to its Biddinghuizen site in June with Stageco Nederland constructing

Above: King Of The Court skyboxes and (inset) champions Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer.

a smaller-than-normal stage to accommodate three days of live streaming by 80 artists, and a special ‘End Show’ with a closing ceremony.

For several years, Stageco has been building the set for the ever-popular Dutch TV show ‘Ik Hou Van Holland’, hosted by Linda de Mol and commissioned by ITV Studios. For this year’s series, the design underwent a number of changes to ensure that the set complied with social distancing rules.

MORE NEWS FROM THE NETHERLANDS

A member of the Stageco Nederland team who works part-time at a local gym saw that fitness equipment and classes were being moved outdoors in order to operate within social restrictions.

Originally, a tent provided some protection against the elements but very soon the idea was born to have a permanent roof structure attached to the gym, allowing it to be in service all year round.

Above: Live streaming at Defqon.1, Right: Larger Than Live. Below right: Alternative jobs have included welding for a monument in Amsterdam and assisting with numerous Christmas lights installations.

Aware of the situation at Stageco regarding available work, the gym’s owner knew that its staff had the time, skills and workshop to engineer and build a custom roof structure, and so instead of hiring a building contractor to fulfil the job, he chose Stageco.

Most of the structure was prefabricated with HEA beams in the workshop at Stageco Nederland and bolted together on site. The foundation was created by means of screw piles from a company that had been hired to work with Stageco on the cancelled Dutch Grand Prix. For the paving, Stageco NL also brought in its regular festival season transport provider.

The project was an opportunity to keep the R&D department, workshop and crew busy for a couple of weeks, as well as strengthening ties with service partners.

IN ADDITION…

Stageco Nederland has also kept its teams busy with a range of ‘alternative’ work, such as welding jobs on a huge Holocaust monument in Amsterdam, installing Christmas lights in cities throughout the country, creating fall protection on buildings and renovating gutters, while its truck drivers have been active with various transport companies.