Soundstorm 2023
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For three years we’ve partnered with MDLBEAST to ensure that Soundstorm, a multi-genre music festival, captured headlines for its immersive entertainment, helping them to shatter records and collect a host of awards and accolades along the way. As the festival evolved and continued to grow, MDLBEAST an entertainment company anchored in the Kingdom, was looking to make the event more sustainable by focusing on the future.
We got to work transforming the 5.3 sq km festival site into a more permanent venue space, constructing pedestrian bridges, a central event command center, site wide fiber and IT connectivity, and permanent water solutions that will enable this event to flourish for decades to come. We then filled the event landscape with thrilling entertainment, captivating works of art, and never-been-done-before experiences – showcasing the very best of Saudi arts and culture. The infrastructure investments have also developed the site into a more commercially viable asset for a diversity of future event and programmatic uses.
We welcomed guests in for something truly unforgettable. 180 acts performing over 3 days across 8 jaw-dropping stages – where music, art and culture gave rise to a storm, and where happiness spread like wildfire. In its third iteration, the Big Beast stage, which is 200m wide and 34m tall, was reconfigured to become a permanent fixture allowing MDLBEAST the opportunity to rent out the festival site providing them with a new revenue stream. International A-list artists including Metallica, Black Eyed Peas, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith, Travis Scott, Calvin Harris and 50 Cent, performed as patrons swayed to the music.
2,200 aerial drones equipped with fireworks went off like clockwork and guests could walk through a Fire Garden of 50+ pyro elements. Urban culture came alive in Underground Clubs, with vivid murals, mirrors, disco balls, fire, lasers, and lighting creating unique atmospheres. Roving performers and small stages helped to fire up the crowds. MDLTOWN, an architectural gem provided friends a place to chill in an Insta-worthy green landscape.
Guests glittered in glam stations, tested their skills with carnival-styled games, dined from the 105 quick service outlets, 21 food trucks, and 3 casual restaurants, took a wild 20m tall and 189m long zip line ride across the festival, and shopped for the latest streetwear styles. This need-to-see-it-to-believe-it experience provided VIP patrons with a premium experience, as they circumnavigated the event 5m high above the crowds as they traversed 15,000 sq meters of interconnected walkways that provided access to luxe lounges, acrobats, magicians, and 44 ultra-premium viewing boxes.
We were able to help MDLBEAST earn a greater return on their investment by shifting how we execute this project, reinventing strategies from only temporary builds to permanent venue spaces, tackling complex construction projects to ensure that the site can house powerful performances year-round, for years to come.
Soundstorm was once again the ticket of the year, providing guests with a memorable experience, one that continues to drive change in the region through music.