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Ainscough Crane Hire has once again hitting the right notes for some of the world’s biggest music acts with their work for leading event staging company Stageco on a series of major UK music concerts.
Acts Ainscough are involved with include: ELO, Robbie Williams, Take That, U2, Coldplay, Guns N’ Roses and Depeche Mode.
Working across the country in a range of event stadia – including the London Stadium, Twickenham and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff – the contract lifts have been managed by a team led by Mary Duffy from Ainscough’s London Hire Centre Depot.
Using the same size cranes, 55-tonne and 40-tonne at each venue, the operators spend two days assembling and one day de-rigging the staging, lighting and associated AV equipment.
Mary explains some of the challenges she and the operators face working on the projects. She said: “Each stage configuration and each stadium is different so we have to be aware of the new surroundings every time. We did have a situation where the positioning of the stage meant the crane booms were too close to the roof line for us to lift. This meant we had to arrange with the client to reconfigure the stage.
“The real challenge is organising everything to happen at the right time and dovetailing with the myriad of other contractors who work behind the scenes to make sure the show is on.
“This is the fifth successive year we’ve partnered with Stageco and in this time, we have mastered the processes and made them as efficient as possible.”
Other venues Ainscough is working at for the company include: Carrow Road, Norwich; Ricoh Arena, Coventry; Murrayfield, Edinburgh; Wembley Stadium, London; St Mary’s, Southampton; Etihad Stadium, Manchester; London Stadium, London; Principality Stadium, Cardiff and Liberty Stadium, Swansea.
