Project:
Totem Stage, The Common
Venue:
Glastonbury Festival
Client:
The Common
Date:
June 2022
The Brief:
To create an arena style space framed by totem towers that would generate an old school rave vibe amongst mystical landscapes. We were asked to create a radical environment to bring together voices from all over the world, encapsulating the epitome of the Common; ritual, ceremony and rave. Part of the brief was to also reuse the existing set from the previous year, in keeping with the sustainability pact of reduce, reuse and repurpose.
Sketches by Jake Pond
Artistic Director of The Common, Glastonbury
The Design Solution
These previously grey rocky faces were injected with electric, tech-like colours along the cracks to represent that the area had been taken over by ceremonial ravers.
We also illuminated the set with electric colours, including bright pinks and greens, to highlight the fun and vibrant late night mecca collaborating with a talented lighting designer Harry Merrison (Hazzmo)
Vibrant video walls, content creation by Limbic Cinema
The Challenges
Lifting giant set flats, 2x3m in size, made from 40x40mm box steel frame, 9mm ply, polycarv and jesmonite. It took 3-4 people to lift one and a telehandler to lift each of them into position against the layher scaffolding structure.
We managed with a low budget with only £5,500 for materials of which £3,000 went on creating bespoke steel brackets to hang the set flats.
Unable to see the set flats up close until we got to site, we had to design bespoke steel brackets on site under short time constraints
The Fun Elements
Creating it with a 100% female build team! We were so excited to pioneer the idea of the first ever 100% female build team for a main stage at a festival and absolutely loved every second of working with such a talented pool of women from the industry, some we had worked with previously, along with a couple of new faces. All the women were given a chance to do things they don’t usually do, or tasks that are usually taken by the men on mixed build teams, so it was a fantastic opportunity for us all to see what we were made of
Attending the festival! Our highlights included Arcadia’s iconic three legged fire breathing spider back from its hibernation; Shangri-la’sNomad area, an array of interactive installations including those from XR (extinction rebellion) and Lost Horizon Digital; and of course Silver Hayes, newly taken over by Team Love, designed by us, Imagineerium.
The 100% female build crew for Totem @ Glastonbury 2022
Client Feedback / Testimonial (quote):
‘’ The all female Imagineerium team that built our new 2022 venue at Glastonbury Festival, The Common this year were outstanding! Super creative, organised, and skilled and willing to go the extra mile to make it happen!’’
Kerry Veitch, Producer
Extra snippets:
Natasha was a guest on the podcast:
Glastonbury: The Common People
Episode 2 - Decolonial disruptors & feminine energy
Listen here:
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