Bill Harkin Associates

                                                      stage roof design

The Orbit stage roof (top) the most successful tourable staging system in the world. Here pictured at the Glastonbury Festival in 1994 is the 60ft wide proscenium stage.  The design combines economy of material usage with durability, ease of erection and instant presence. There are 100+ stages in constant operation and of course, many imitations.

Another stage roof which has been an incredibly successful solution in terms of lightweight coverage is the inflatable stage roof (bottom left) originally designed for Paul McCartney's Wings concert to aid the restoration of Venice in 1976. Weight was a vital consideration of the brief as the stage was to be erected in Saint Mark's Square Venice which could not withstand heavy load-bearing, so the idea of an inflatable stage roof, a world first, was born. This of course had many spin-off benefits such as economy of storage space, savings in transport costs (the membrane itself would fit into a small van) and speed of erection.

Tri-masted tensile stage roof for the Rolling Stones Tour of Europe '76. now used in Denmark annually as the main stage for the Roskilde Festival. Design: Bill Harkin Associates. Fabric engineering: Tensile Structures, Roskilde. Refurbishment: Stromeyer

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