Steyn City Festival of Flair - A Case Study
Case Study – Steyn City Festival of Flair 2015.
1. The Event Overview.
Steyn City set out to reach into the hearts of the Elite in South Africa by creating the first of a premiere annual event that would rival any of its kind, and succeeded.
They took their love of thoroughbred horses, exotic cars, delectable food, couture and fine bubbly and combined it into an event that resulted in the culmination of style and pizzazz that had the “invite only” guests reeling for more.
By combining the best suppliers of events infrastructure, décor, cuisine, beverages and creative minds in the industry, adding in a little logistical mastery and pulling the occasional rabbit out of a hat they have achieved what they set out to do in the first place.
2. The Brief.
Sensation Lab was approached to supply Bedouin tent and Marquee infrastructure.
A site plan was provided and a site inspection scheduled and conducted as per usual. Working with a power point presentation and the provided site plan we got to work measuring the indicated areas and assessing the slopes of the then construction site and began with our estimates.
Once engagement with Steyn City had commenced, the client quickly realised that Sensation Lab did not only supply Bedouin tents and Marquees but also flooring, carpeting, picket fencing, furniture, lighting, staging and draping.
Bearing in mind that the Equestrian Centre and its surrounding areas were to be launched at the festival, we knew we had a dynamic site on our hands. Now dealing with a dynamic and ever changing site is a tricky thing. It mean you have to conduct more than one site visit, in this case we were on site more than 5 times as site construction of the actual Equestrian Centre progressed to be sure that we would not find ourselves in a situation where our previously measured areas were compromised for square meterage.
3. The Scope of Services.
Initially, Sensation Lab was asked to supply Bedouin Tents and Marquees; however we ended up supplying Painted Flooring for all areas, Tight white Draping for the VIP marquee, Mushroom heaters for all areas and even picket fencing for selected media areas.
It became clear that Sensation Lab catered to a massive variety of event infrastructure in many different facets of the events industry and as such our scope of work grew.
Total infrastructure supplied:
Bedouin Tents – 2300 m²
Marquees – 1040 m²
Painted Flooring – 2530 m²
Draping – 550 m²
Mushroom Heaters – 35
4. The Challenges and their Solutions.
Weather.
Mother Nature can be a little unpredictable. That said, the weather didn’t play along much as we neared the event day and a gusting gale force wind two days before the event mangled some draping in the VIP marquee. This was easily rectified and put back in place and the marquee was then sealed to prevent any further issues.
However, certain areas around the event were designated as outdoor areas and had to be moved into other designated spaces or altered to accommodate for the ever changing weather which created a bit of a challenge as we were running out of time. Luckily we have a dedicated team and they worked tirelessly through the last 3 nights leading up to the big day in order to affect the necessary changes required to meet client’s demands.
Aerial Photography.
In the weeks leading up to the beginning of build up a schedule was drafted outlining timings and dates for each area of the build up.
Unbeknown to us while making the, albeit very tight schedule, is that client had scheduled an aerial photography shoot due to start the day of the beginning of build up. As you can imagine this through a spanner in the works.
The solution was quite simple, start build up in an outer lying area the day before the proposed start of build and then skip a day of build up so that the aerial shoot could be conducted. Thereafter we were free to continue as previously planned.
5. The Result
A well executed Premium Event thanks to all the suppliers involved and one VERY happy client!