Salalah Oman

2010-2011

Pivot / LedGo

Set Design Associate / Supervision

Intro

In 2010 we were asked to propose an opening show to the Salalah tourism festival in Oman. A challenge in many ways, the Sultan himself would attend the show, a stage for over a thousand dancers and the location still under construction...

Salalah's most definite best time is during the monsoon (khareef) season that lasts from July to September when the desert transforms into a lush, green oasis! Oman features the Salalah tourism festival, which is traditionally held from 15 July to 31 August. In 2010 a Dutch team was asked to design the opening ceremony. The reason an international group of specialists was put together was obviously that the Sultan himself, including his entourage, would attend the show in person.

It turned out that the project was full of madness. Typically, for something this big, you do a working visit of a few days to measure the location accurately and get an idea of the possibilities and limitations. After being postponed a few times, we eventually had to skip that working visit and just left to start up production. The first day was the biggest surprise. The stadium was still under construction, while a month later, there would be a show with over a thousand dancers performing for the Sultan.

We quickly shifted into fifth gear and expanded the design team's tasks to include show production and construction coordination to get things done quickly. One of the advantages was that we were in time to adapt the stadium's design to be better equipped for future events. Hard work with a great result!