Project Description

Soundstorm is the largest music festival in KSA and is the premier event on the burgeoning events / entertainment scene. Soundstorm is home to 7 stages and aims to accommodate between 150,000 to 200,000 daily attendees. The event plays host to a fresh lineup of the biggest local and international artists and entertainers. The event takes place in BanBan just 40km north of Riyadh, KSA. The festival is divided into three distinct areas: festival site, festival precinct and external works. RBG were involved in the planning, design and construction stages in all three.

Project Challenges

RBG were commissioned by MDLBeast, working in partnership with the show producer – Production Glue (PG), to develop the design and documentation of over fifty (50) different packages of works over our three (3) year involvement with the project. These include, but are not limited to:

• Main stage (Big Beast)
• Main patron access bridge (120m span x 30m wide)
• VIB access bridge (40m and 70m single span box trusses)
• 5-storey high modular VIB building
• 3,800m of elevated VIB walkway structure
• 5 container stage arrangements
• Dance tent venue (80m wide clear arch span x 110m long)
• Approx 4,000,000m2 of carparking for >85,000 vehicles
• 20km+ of external access roads
• 200+ external street lighting masts
• 59 carpark stadium lighting masts
• Temporary power / water / foul water system
• Permanent workshop (120m long x 15m wide)
• Permanent warehouse (150m long x 40m wide)

Project Challenges and Added Value

Programme - delivery for events and entertainment projects is typically performed under significant programme pressures and this was particularly true of the Soundstorm project. RBG were able to deploy an extremely flexible, agile and committed technical team to successfully support the Client under these pressures.

Mobility - The Client set very clear definitions for what success entailed on the project and it revolved around an enhanced patron experience. This started with their journey to the festival and availability to parking. RBG were able to develop a Traffic Management Plan, in partnership with our brother company SMEC, which ensured all patrons experienced limited disruption during ingress / egress.

Flexibility - to enable the Client to stay flexible with asset location / patron experiences all assets designed were required to be as modular / moveable as possible. RBGs knowledge and innovation with modern methods of construction including modular structures provided the client with the required flexibility with the festival site layout and every changing site design.

Size - the Clients aspirations to host the largest festival in the Middle East and to compete with the largest global festivals meant the infrastructure required to support such a vision was immense. This challenge was further compounded by the fact that the location of the festival was essentially a greenfield site. RBG was able to call on a significant amount of resource, over 100 contributors, across the global business to respond this requirement. The result was a rapid acceleration of design that allowed the Client to progress tender and procurement far earlier than expected which unlocked the production programme.