An Olympian task
What : London International Horse Show 2022 Where : ExCel London When : December 2022 Image : Harry Charles
The London International Horse Show ( LIHS ) celebrated its 50th iteration on 15-19 December at ExCel London . The event , delivered by HPower on behalf of owner Clarion Events , has seen Arena Seating supply the demountable grandstand for the past 40 years .
In 2021 , the refurbishment of Olympia meant the show had to move and ExCeL became the preferred new home . HPower operations director Nick Brooks-Ward says the aim was to recreate the same , much-loved , venue layout as Olympia within ExCel , with seats around the ring and VIP boxes offering a raised vantage point from behind the seats on the 6mx7.5m wide mezzanine .
The main horse performance arena was expanded with the additional floorspace afforded by the move to ExCeL . It was surrounded by Arena ’ s grandstand seating on all four sides , with 5,555 clearview seats and 2,743 standard grandstand seats . A mezzanine platform was custom designed and installed at the rear of the grandstand seating to support 20 VIP hospitality boxes , a Royal Box , the technical front-of-house control platform and two assisted viewing platforms with ramps for access . In the adjacent hall , Arena also installed 200 seats overlooking the practice horse arena .
HPower has worked with Arena project director Martin Clark on LIHS since 2003 . Other key members of the Arena team were project manager Nathan May and site manager Dan Butler .
The build took 14 days , with between 50 to 60 Arena staff on site each day , who completed the install three days ahead of schedule .
Clark says , “ The first challenge we tackled when the event moved in 2021 lay around the creative engineering to re-imagine the model of Olympia ’ s format , which our in-house technical CAD team spent many hours fine-tuning the aesthetics and calculations , through many iterations . We produced a detailed project management work flow , from precise loading and delivering equipment to ExCel , to ensure minimal carbon footprint and efficient logistics . We evolved the design and the logistical elements of the project for the latest event ’ s delivery .”
Says Brooks-Ward , “ Everybody worked brilliantly to deliver a worldclass venue in record time that looked , quite simply , stunning . We felt that we could never re-create The Grand Hall , Olympia but I can assure you , what the Arena team delivered beat that .”
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