Arena Seating provides front row view of Tour de France

In a widely heralded organisational triumph for London, the UK stage of The Tour de France brought to the UK by Transport for London this July was so successful that organisers hope the event will return to the UK in the near future. Arena Seating was among the production team ensuring that the event went without a hitch, providing stages and podiums in central London for Le Grand Départ as well as grandstand seating for 700 people in one of the city’s most sensitive locations, The Mall.

“The main feature for us was the opening ceremony in Trafalgar Square,” says Martin Clark, project manager for Arena Seating, “We built two blocks of covered seats, a disabled platform and the main broadcast structure and commentary box.” Although the work seemed straightforward, there were hidden dangers which required careful planning. “We had to bear in mind that we were working directly above a London Underground tunnel and had to find the lightest crane possible to build the canopies.”

Arena worked with innovision who were working on behalf of Transport for London to plan the structures. “Given the physical challenges of producing events in Trafalgar Square we worked closely with innovision to ensure that all aspects of the event were covered considering the considerable amount of infrastructure being installed”

Fit it did and cycling fans were treated to a glorious, uninterrupted day of racing.