American Grammy-Award winning superstar, Beyonce will be performing on the largest stage ever produced in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) and the Caribbean on February 18 at the Queen’s Park Savannah (QPS), Port-of-Spain. This was revealed yesterday during a press conference at the QPS on the progress of preparations for the concert.
Sean Burkett, manager of production and artiste’s elements, said Beyonce intends on keeping with the entire concept which she has used throughout her ‘I AM’ tour. ‘The stage is going to be 64 feet wide, 56 feet deep, 60 feet high off the ground and in terms of the additional pieces, we started with a local vendor,’ he said.
Local vendor Advance Scaffolding Company Limited has been working around the clock making sure the specifications are met, while the extra materials were brought in from Unisson Structures in Quebec, Canada. Burkett also revealed they initially started with a local stage but they had to extend it to meet Beyonce’s requirements.
‘Some of her requirements will be an LED video wall, that is somewhere in the vicinity of 56 feet by 27 feet. There is no stage right now that accommodates that kind of structure, we had to set up a lot of technical counter weights, around the stage there is 120 tonnes of counter weights supporting the roof structure and all of the additional lighting and infrastructure,’ he explained. He noted there will be two stages, Stage A and B, for Beyonce’s performance.
‘The major part of the production will be on stage A but she wants to come forward and feel the crowd and interact with the people. It brings her a lot closer to the public and to the audience in terms of presentation,’ he said.
Patrons in the VVIP area will be situated seven feet away from Stage B, the VIP area will be 170 feet from the barrier that separates from Stage A while general admission patrons will begin from 100 metres away from Stage B.
Beyonce will land in Trinidad on Ash Wednesday, a day before her performance. Burkett revealed her production manager has expressed interest in tasting local foods. ‘She wants to be exposed to some of the local cuisine, so we have sent her options of that which they have signed off on, so they are coming to Trinidad to try the curry,’ he said.
TSTT vice-president legal Lisa Agard addressed rumours that Beyonce’s production team was not pleased with the original structure. ‘A minor challenge that was encountered was the fact that the dimensions were larger. We acquired additional extensions for the roof and they have signed off on the design of that,’ she said.
Agard also reassured the VVIP tickets that were stolen from cricket star Brian Lara’s residence on February 2 have been cancelled and new tickets have been reissued.