Two years ago from today I experience one of the most mind blowing concert of my life, Coldplay is one of my favorite bands and being able to see them for the first time was everything I ever imagine, but looking into the logistics that needs to be done I cant imagine how such big performance can get ready so quickly knowing they are in different cities almost every day.
I start to research, and I found out that A Head Full of Dreams Tour had a total of 122 shows across Latin America, Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia. They had 109 universal crew, 32 trucks and nine bus drivers; apparently the biggest bands usually have two huge stage set ups which toured around the world. Their entire stage, video and lighting is duplicated so while one stage is being set up in one city the other one was on it’s way to another town ready to be set up in another city. When the show rolls into a city the management employs a local company to supply the local road crew, usually they combine different freight modes—local trucking, cross-country trucking, air freight, and ocean freight.
These cargo companies handle everything from imports, exports, customs and carnets for the tour schedule, using trucks, air and sea freight. Musical instruments, tools and electronics are packed into custom-made steel cases and “work boxes” so they can be transported safely. These boxes are very heavy and the need to stay upright, they are rolled onto pallets and wrapped tightly so they are safe when in transit.
Providing transport for the European tour was supplied 32 Megacube trucks and trailers on the main production, the amounts of equipment being moved (which was in excess of 200 tonnes) means that physically getting the equipment between shows is a limiting factor for booking dates, South America was a touch tricky in that they had on average 20 hours to get 100 tonnes of equipment from door to door.
Not only can inventory and logistics control help the touring company keep track of everything, different technology can also help with promotional activities. Being able to use QR codes that are bound to help raise interest and brand recognition of the musical tour. By using this type of codes the band can give away free downloads of songs or videos, offer discounts for tickets or tour souvenirs, or hold a promotional giveaway for backstage passes, the uses for these codes are really only limited by your own creativity, and they help the tour connect with the exited people attending the show.
Here’s a small video clip of the concert 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEK2z2gAyPL/?taken-by=valefico320
https://medium.com/speedbox-is-typing/the-logistics-behind-concert-tours-7656f488b6c8 https://www.tpimagazine.com/coldplay-a-head-full-of-dreams/
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 