Burberry at London Fashion Week

Burberry, London Fashion Week, Kensington  Gardens, 19 Sep 2011

The Burberry catwalk show is a regular event for TESS and Mike Herbert. The 2011 event was held in the shadow of the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens which, on top of the usual safety planning, requires the additional arrangements associated with working in a Royal Park.

The new structure was a 50m x 25m clearspan tent with a glazed, polygon roof. It can support 2 tonnes per arch and in total around 12 tonnes of production were flown for the show leaving the floor area free of ground support. The tent was built on a deck of Layher scaffold which incorporated  tiered levels for seating.  

As well as building the scaffolding and clearspan, the catwalk and rear wall were constructed of imported Italian stone which introduced some interesting safety issues. Fortunately all the contractors have a long standing relationship with the event and are used to working together, with Mike monitoring activity and always available for advice.

In addition to the technical crew, the event had 1,500 invited guests, 200 staff including security personnel and 200 press and media with the show being streamed live on the Internet. The 15 minute catwalk show took two and a half weeks to build and several days to clear, so Mike managed to find a spare moment to pop across the road and catch up with his colleagues from his days as safety manager at the Albert Hall.