Following the premiere of her sixth solo studio album, Lemonade, Beyoncé is on the road with The Formation World Tour featuring a production design by Es Devlin, engineered and built by StageCo and Tait Towers.
“The Formation World Tour is not the typical stadium show," says Brian Levine, senior project manager from Tait Towers. "In fact, this tour is a game-changer for what can be achieved in a stadium touring environment. The entire collaboration from scenic, to structure, to mechanics was custom-made to create an epic experience for both Beyoncé and her fans.”
Devlin and Tait worked with Beyoncé and her team, including production managers Malcolm Weldon and Jake Berry, and lighting designer Tim Routledge to build the custom-designed stage, comprising a treadmill runway, a B-stage pool filled with water, winches carrying acrobatic performers, a stage lift, and the full structure that supports PRG Nocturne 70' video screens. These stage elements are controlled by Tait Navigator automation.
StageCo engineered and built the central revolving set piece, and Devin says that Dirk de Dekker and his team at StageCo were a crucial part of the core creative team, says Devlin. “Tom Frederickx is the engineer who was central to bringing the idea of a giant revolving sculpture to life and worked closely with Tait and with all other departments throughout the process. It was very much a case of StageCo building a revolving/sliding skeleton, and Tait and PRG coating it with staging and video skin.”
Tait has worked with Devlin many times, with Levine saying the designer "has an incredibly detailed and specific vision. This project was different than most stadium shows as it consisted of true stadium architecture. Here, there is no roof. The monolith is the roof, the rigging, and the structure."
McLaren Engineering Group produced the engineering analysis and served as engineer-of-record for all of Tait’s scope (structural and mechanical engineering, but not electrical/controls). Theta Consulting provided engineering for StageCo as their US engineer-of-record.
The stage covers almost the entire StageCo sub-deck. Within it are lifts and access stairs. "The runway with treadmills had to be waterproof since it was unprotected outdoors, and it needed to have very solid leveling capabilities because it was being built on the stadium floor," says Levine. "Besides the stage though, we incorporated Tait Navigator, our proprietary technology automation platform. It controls movement of all assets."
The pool has 2,000 gallons of stored water beneath it, and it is performed on dry before it fills for the last portion of the show. It takes approximately 10 minutes to fill without anyone in the audience knowing it's happening.
Tait looked at performer access and paths beneath the stage, as well as technician access to get in and out of the monolith when closed. "A lot of things changed after Rock Lititz [rehearsals]," says Levine. "We didn’t see the steel system until Tampa, and when we did, we made a number of tweaks to the stage decking and a lot of the equipment that interacted with the StageCo structure, nothing which we didn’t anticipate with such a massive integration of gear happening for the first time in a stadium."
Tait's team also included project designer Robert Kubisen, rehearsal project manager at Rock Lititz Matt Hales, and rehearsal project manager at Tait Phil Mitchell.
Scroll through the gallery to read more about Devlin’s production design, and stay tuned for more coverage in our Project In Focus, sponsored by SGM.