Festival Spotlight: Intent at Arcadia Spectacular

Sep 18

Intent_stretch_tent_Arcadia+Spectacular_queen_elizabeth_park_london_festival_2018+.jpeg — Intent at Arcadia Spectacular

Fire, beats and stretch tent festival design

When it comes to unrivalled experiences, dancing beneath a giant fire-breathing spider, while acrobats perform aerial circus stunts above your head and the ground pulsates to a bone-shaking beat has to be high on the list. And here at Intent, we’ve been dancing the night away at the immersive festival experiences by Arcadia for years – so we were thrilled to be involved in Arcadia’s 10th Anniversary Festival special!

Held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the two-day event saw Arcadia Spectacular (more commonly known as Arcadia) take pyrotechnics, upcycling (those spider’s legs are former Customs and Excise scanning units), circus and music to a whole new level. The festival felt post-apocalyptic and life-affirming at the same time. Dan Leake, our Managing Director, was there throughout the event, overseeing the tent build and soaking up the atmosphere.

“The main attraction was, without doubt, the huge fire-breathing spider which sat in the middle of the site and suspended loads of acrobats from the three cranes on top of the structure,” said Dan – who’s been a fan of Arcadia since its early days doing the Afterburner at Glastonbury Festival. “On Friday night I watched Metamorphosis, their current crazy show which incorporates aerial acrobatics, pyrotechnics, lasers and music – and on Saturday night I caught Leftfield, which was awesome and had the Lords of Lightning throwing lightning bolts around.”

“We needed to design something for Arcadia’s needs in the space we had to work in, which was nice and high and with an interesting shape. They wanted something that stood out and had plenty of texture and interesting features – and that’s a great brief for us!” “With such an impressive and ground-breaking collective as Arcadia, we wanted to make sure we added more aesthetic value and experience to the event and complement the work that they do,” said Dan.

The Arcadia structure at Queen Elizabeth Park

Thousands of revellers filled the site and the three main music venues, The Spider, The Reactor and The Bug – while the likes of Norman Jay, Groove Armada, Eats Everything and Triple Helix kept the punters dancing all day long. Intent provided two tents for the weekend, including a unique stretch tent for the main dining cover.

The tent quickly became the go-to dining and chill-out area where awe-struck punters went to take a breather. A great spot to catch some shademprocess the spectacle they’d just witnessed and consult the impressive line-up.

And for those who needed some extra energy, there was the Relentless energy drink bar. This was housed in one of our 10.5m x 9m black stretch tents , which provided just the right VIP and slick image for the brand.

Like the look of our custom stretch tents? Get in touch to find out more about our bespoke stretch tent design and management services.