Arena Group ship shape for Queen Victoria Launch

Cunard’s event manager decided to build a temporary West End theatre on Southampton Docks for the launch of its new ocean liner, the Queen Victoria. The Arena Group was selected to provide a large proportion of the event’s infrastructure, using facilities provided by two of the Group’s specialist divisions.

The prestigious new addition to Cunard’s fleet is 300m long, 90,000 tons, and can host 2,000 guests in one of 990 staterooms. was launched by the Duchess of Cornwall with Prince Charles also attending on 10th December 2007. The launch event was staged by leading Production Director Robbie Williams, who created the temporary theatre using the experience of many of the team that supplied the temporary Wembley Pavilion venue in 2005. Arena Seating Director Dave Withey co-ordinated the Arena Group input - the temporary TFS venue and a range of seating services via subsidiaries Arena Structures and Arena Seating; he also liaised with Robbie (Williams) and Star Events Group’s Project Director Roger Barrett to ensure the project’s complex engineering and strict logistics schedule was adhered to. Star Event Group’s input was essential in creating the unique theatre venue, supplying the adjoining stage positioned at the end of the TFS structure, with a spectacular. clear back-wall allowing the invited audience to look onto the Queen Victoria behind the stage.

The project benefited from the close teamwork between contractors and their familiarity with each others’ methods, Dave says. “The similarities with the Wembley Pavilion project and the good working relationship between Arena Group and the Star Events Group helped this project run so smoothly.”

“It was a complex project,” says James Thomas, Project Manager for Arena Structures. “The TFS had to be weighted with several hundred tonnes of concrete ballast. With the site at the water’s edge, extensive calculations and structural designs were necessary.” Arena Structures is almost unique within the temporary structures industry in employing a full time structural engineer to carry out work of this nature.

During the week of the build the Arena team endured extremes of weather, with rain and wind making it hard work on the waterfront. Health and safety precautions demanded that the TFS was evacuated twice during the interior installation as winds exceeded 60mph, but the structure stood firm against the elements.

For Arena Seating, the complexity lay in the multi-level structure, the range of seating supplied and the level of finish required. Forty upholstered “Congress” theatre style seats were installed for the VVIPs and Royal boxes either side of the stage, with 330 luxury style seats in the “orchestra stalls” beneath the stage.

Behind them were 1,900 tiered, upholstered seats for the rest of the invited guests. “Robbie Williams Productions effectively created a West End theatre inside the TFS, down to the fine details,” says Dave.

Once the show was over, at 6pm on Monday 10 December, the seating had to be removed rapidly, to allow the rest of the production to de-rig, with the entire site cleared just six days after show day.

Project Manager: James Thomas 07768 537858