We go behind the scenes of the D-Day 80 commemorative events with Steve Nolan

Steve Nolan of Chromatic Productions was brought in by BBC Studio Events as event production director for the D-Day 80 commemoration events held in Portsmouth. He was also technical director for the events held in Normandy. Steve shares details of how the event was planned and the suppliers who helped to make it happen.

Planning began for the D-Day Commemorative Events back in October. Originally, we were only looking at the Normandy sites and around 300 attendees. This quickly grew to 2000 and then in November it was decided that there would be events in Portsmouth and that they’d all be linked for television.

We eventually landed on three events which included the ticketed event for 5000 on Southsea Common which was held on 5th June and the focus of the commemorations at home. The event featured powerful testimonies from military personnel and D-Day veterans as well as musical performances by a military orchestra.

This was followed in the evening by a spectacular drone show that lit up the skies above Portsmouth. Whilst the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Bayeux War Cemetery hosted a spectacular lightshow as the Armed Forces formed a vigil. Then on the 6th June there was the commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, hosted by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion.

With the majority of the team and suppliers having worked together on the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle there was a great deal of knowledge and understanding already in place.

An 80 metre wide LED screen which was by 12.5 metre high in the centre was supplied by Creative Technology and formed the focal point. Installing 1405 screen panels wasn’t without its challenges; it required a lot of support which was provided by Star Live along with the cantilever roof where we also installed LED screen. We then created walkways to be able to access the LED screen build from the rear and allow the screen to be built in courses, much like a brick wall, with walkways at every 2 metres in height. This made it safe for the crew to work on without constant harness work. Jools Bentley and the team from J-EMSS were on hand throughout to provide support with Health & Safety.

Star Live also supplied the grandstand seating; stage deck, ramps and catwalks; T tower delay masts; platforms for press and media, cameras, presenters and accessible access; the Royal Box and Royal Retiring Room.

Given that there were more than 500 military performers, BBC presenters and special guests including Dame Helen Mirren, Marisha Wallace, Phil Dunster, Emma Barton and Zak Abel, we needed an extensive amount of infrastructure to create dressing rooms and artist areas. Qdos Event Hire supplied cabins, storage containers, male, female and accessible toilets.

The BBC Studio Events team prioritise sustainability, going way beyond the scope of Albert. They hire in as much kit as possible to minimise waste. All trucking and journeys by suppliers and crew is recorded and everyone is encouraged to maximise transport runs to reduce the amount of trucking. Portsmouth City Council were incredibly helpful giving us direct access to sewerage which saved moving around trucks of water. We were also able to make use of a small grid supply that was available with the energy storage boosting the grid supply during busy periods saving us at least 10,000 litres of fuel during our tenancy.

We’ve worked with Power Logistics on several events for the BBC now, including the Coronation Concert. There’s a perception that running a sustainable event costs more but, in some cases, you can save money. We know for a fact that by not buying diesel for that event that we saved £37,000, never mind the carbon footprint.

This time around they were able to install batteries which meant we weren’t reliant on generator power and hardly used any HVO. 832Kwh of battery energy storage was deployed during the course of the event with all backstage utilities powered by battery for five weeks. There were additional sustainable initiatives from the team at Power Logistics including fitting dusk till dawn sensors on lighting and installing switches on the lights in the temporary structures so they could be turned off when not in use.

Our caterer Red Radish, in partnership with Olio, redistributed over 1,100 meals to over 70 local families!

Accessibility was also a key consideration given that the youngest of the 20 veterans who attended is 97 years young. In addition, out of our 5000 attendees, 108 were declared wheelchair users and this was probably slightly higher on the day. That’s a very high percentage and we wanted everyone to feel included. We had volunteers from the navy who did a brilliant job ushering people to their seats. We also increased medical provisions although as it turned out there were only a few very minor issues.

It was such a rewarding experience with so many highlights and incredible stories. I was lucky enough to visit Southwick House and stand in front of the original D Day map. In the months leading up to D-Day, the house became the headquarters of the main allied commanders.

I also learned that Sunbelt’s LD20 Trakway that we hired to make temporary roads as it’s quick to deploy and retrieve making it perfect for lifting cabins into place in off road areas was based on an invention by a chap called Major-General Sir Percy Hobart to get tanks onto the beaches of Normandy.

Meeting the veterans was amazing, they’re so humble. One told me that he didn’t know what all the fuss was about, another had survived the landings only to be drafted into the tank regiment a short time later and lost both of his legs.

Here we are talking about logistics… in comparison the logistics of those oil pipelines, the communications and sheer infrastructure involved are staggering...ours pales into insignificance.

Additional Suppliers:

Sound: Terry Tew Sound Ltd

Lighting: Liteup Ltd

Fencing, Heras and pedestrian barriers: Entertee Ltd

Trackway and Pedestrian Walkway: Sunbelt Rentals

Marquees: Field & Lawn

Plant: CW Plant

Buggies and production rental cars: Enterprise

Water & Waste: MTD Ltd

Security: SES Security Group Ltd

Site Crew: BizMonkeys

Stage Crew: Showforce

Special FX: Planet FX Ltd

Radios & Bolero's: National Radio Bank

Internet: Spindlewood Ltd

Site Cleaning: DC Site Services

Astro Turf: Sweeney Todd

Drones: Sky Magic Ltd