500 ‘to guard’ Beyonce
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Approximately 500 security officials will be guarding Beyonce and patrons on concert night. The local event will be the superstar’s last live performance for 2010 according to the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), promoters of the event. Operations Manager at LAY Management, Geoffrey Lake, said discussions to ensure a safe and successful event have been ongoing between the company and Assistant Superintendent Don Lezama of the Belmont Police Station. Speaking to the Express at the venue yesterday, Lake said approximately 300 police officers and 200 private security personnel will be working to ensure safety inside and outside the venue of the ’I AM Beyonce’ concert. LAY Management, owned by cricket icon Brian Lara and football superstar Dwight Yorke, was hired by TSTT to manage the coordination and logistics associated with the event infrastructure such as no parking restrictions around the Queen’s Park Savannah from 7 a.m. on concert day and a wrecker service. Event Planner, Sean Burkett, who is in charge of managing the construction of the stage explained that two stages are being constructed for the show. ’The construction of Stage A and Stage B is in keeping with their entire concept that they’ve used in at least five continents and they are bringing a very massive show to Trinidad and Tobago,’ he said. ’The major part of the production will be on stage A but she wants to come forward and feel the crowd and interact with the people and that’s where stage B is going to be. So it brings her a lot closer to the public and audience in terms of presentation.’ He added that Beyonce’s technical team will be using an LCD Video wall, which is approximately 56 feet by 27 feet. ’There is no stage right now that accommodates that type of structure and to have those things accommodated we had to set of a lot of technical weights, counter weights, one tonne, 10 tonne,’ he said. And the executive head of mobile and legal services at TSTT, Lisa Agard, has denied reports that Beyonce was not pleased with the set up. She added: ’The only challenge that we encountered as Sean was explaining was the fact that the dimension she required of the stage was larger than anything we had in the Caribbean and so we had to acquire some additional extension to the roof of the stage…… We’ve met that, they’ve singed off on the design of that and in fact one of her people is here currently supervising the stage.’ Agard said the stage is the largest to be built in the Caribbean. It is 64 feet wide, 56 feet deep and 60 feet high. As a result of the size, Canadian company Unisson was hired as consultants to local contractors Advance Scaffolding Company Limited for the infrastructure of the stage. (Trinidad Express) |
