Mojo Barriers' Summer Success

Wednesday November 16th - 13.22pm

Mojo Barriers US office has enjoyed a successful summer helping to keep crowds and artists safe at festivals and concerts across the USA.

The stage barrier specialist, based near Lititz, Pennsylvania, has worked on some of the biggest events of 2011 including the popular Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago and the Greenbrier Summer Concert Series in West Virginia.

Mojo Barriers designed and installed a new stage barrier configuration at Lollapalooza from 5 – 7 August 2011. The festival saw global stars including Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Muse take to the stage and perform to crowds of up to 90,000 people each day.

Mojo worked closely with festival organisers C3 Presents and security specialists NPB prior to the event to design the new layout which improved crowd safety in front of the two main stages, whilst also creating an effective working space for show security and isolating the stage from the audience.

Both stage layouts were comprised of 500m of Mojo’s industry-leading stage barrier with a 140ft thrust leading to the front-of-stage tower, giving security and working personnel excellent access.

Mojo Barriers was also entrusted to deliver a safe festival site at this year’s Greenbrier Summer Concert Series at West Virginia State Fair Ground from 28 – 30 July 2011.

The concerts have become a prestigious part of the annual PGA Tournament weekend and this year increased from one to three days.

Mojo Barriers provided 800m of stage barrier for the main stage, designing and installing a secondary arched barrier layout to aid the safety and enjoyment of the audience. Mojo also installed Line-Up Gates to enable controlled and ordered access to both the VIP section and the general admission area.

Matthew Tamulis, Mojo Barrier’s Project Manager, said: “We did an advance site visit in early spring to help design the layout. This was particularly important as this year the event changed from a one day concert with a capacity of 15,000 to a three day event with a capacity of 60,000 per day. This meant a huge focus was on the safety of the guests and the flow and management of such a large crowd.

“No two festival sites are the same and we worked closely with the organisers Intero Live and Greenbrier Resort to design configurations that worked both for the site and the audience. Our primary consideration was to keep the crowd, artists and staff safe, whilst also maximizing the enjoyment of the concerts by both VIPs and general admission guests.”

Following Lollapalooza C3 Presents awarded Mojo Barriers the contract for Austin City Limits, a music festival which took place in September in Texas. The company has also been contracted for numerous high profile events autumn events including Festival Republic’s inaugural Orlando Calling festival.

JB Dolphin, Mojo’s US President, concluded: “There have been interesting developments in the science of crowd management and barrier design over recent years and it is great working with new clients who have the foresight and confidence in Mojo to update their event sites. We have some great new projects on the books for the next few months and are looking forward to continuing to build relationships with events across the country.”