Norwegian staging and technical production company AVAB-CAC, based in Bergen, has supplied its new custom designed MILOS roofing system for a recent series of concerts in and around the town, including a recent show by Swedish pop superstars Roxette. The band, who had a string of chart-topping hits in the 1990s, are back on the road again with a world tour and their first studio album “Room Service” in 10 years.
The Roxette show was staged at Bergenhus Fortress & Castle (a greenfield site, which is part of a medieval fortress and castle) located in the middle of Bergen’s historic centre.
The roof features seven tower supports and a top trussing grid made up of RTT and FTT trussing. The structure is 20 metres wide by 16 metres deep with 10.5 metres of headroom above the stage, providing a great performance space for medium to large shows. It has a sloping asymmetric roof and is constructed from a combination of MILOS standard and custom products – including M950 and QTKT truss, M520 folding truss and MT2 Towers.
The roof supply project was managed for MILOS by Milan Kolousek and by Arne Svendsen for AVAB-CAC.
They specifically needed a roof system capable of taking a weight loading of 16 tonnes to accommodate lighting, video and sound production for large shows and events. This was also one of the major reasons they asked MILOS to provide the roof – because of the company’s reputation for strong, high quality roof systems with good load-bearing capacities and wind resistance.
The stage was designed by MILOS at the company’s HQ in the Czech Republic, complete with a special vertical keder profile at the request of the client, which allows for quick and complete covering of the side walls. The keder can be fast-dismantled, allowing a very speedy breakdown of the side skins. The rooftop canopy and the keder location has also been designed to protect all six motors from the rain.
On site, it takes a crew of 16 about one day to fully erect and dress the roof and another day to build a stage.
When MILOS received the order, the company had just four weeks to design, build, test and deliver the full roof system in time for the first concert for which it was required – and this quick turnaround is also a parameter at which MILOS excels.
AVAB-CAC has been a MILOS client since 2005 and already owns substantial stocks of M950, M520 and M290 trussing and M2 Towers. Other concerts for which the roof has been utilised since AVAB-CAC took delivery in May include Bob Dylan, Katie Melua and the Bergen Calling Festival.
