Industrial culture: Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park
Ruhr Games 2023
Between festival and sports event | 10,000 spectators at opening concert | New Olympic disciplines with young top athletes | satis&fy supplied event venues with lighting and sound technology in parallel and took over special constructions as well as logistical planning services for smooth operation.
Urban art, culture and competitive sports
As the largest international sports and cultural festival for young people, the Ruhr Games combine not just two, but three sides of the coin: art, culture and sport – and there were plenty of medals to be won when the Duisburg Landscape Park was transformed into a sprawling sports and festival location with metropolitan flair from June 8 to 11, 2023.
10,000 visitors celebrated true to the motto “Be there when it begins” on Thursday evening at the kick-off event with gigs by hip bands Giant Rooks, Leoniden and newcomer Stina Holmquist.
From festival stage to multi-sport area
Overnight, the landscape park changed its face and became a multi-sport area where 5,200 national and international athletes demonstrated their skills in 18 sports. Olympic competitive sports tournaments were held, as well as European championships and German championships of the respective professional associations.
The sports ranged from speed climbing and bouldering to BMX flatland and beach volleyball.
Just as diverse as the sports were the locations, podiums, grandstands and technical infrastructure, for which satis&fy was largely responsible on behalf of Christopher Lonzynski Event. The trusting and successful cooperation was the logical continuation of the last years, in which satis&fy employees had already provided selective support from time to time.
From Opening to Closing
For the opening ceremony on Thursday, the center court as central stage was equipped by satis&fy with a classic festival setup. Only equipment from our own inventory was used, including moving light setups and flown PAs from L-Acoustics including a delay line, in order to provide even coverage for the rows of spectators, which tended to be spread out in depth due to the architecture on site. Three bands, one evening, short change-over slots – thanks to our experience in live entertainment, the Ruhr Games started with an impressive open-air atmosphere.
It was precisely this area that had to be converted and technically retooled overnight for the competitions, because from Friday morning the center court was primarily the location for the finals in the various disciplines. Newly installed grandstands as well as sound and light set-ups, which were geared towards presenters and commentators instead of live bands, transformed the festival into an arena.
The Ruhr Games were flanked by solution-oriented detail work from satis&fy.
CULTURAL STAGE \\
The cultural stage encouraged people to join in. An area of 10 x 7 meters with a height of 40 centimeters and a specially made mirrored floor provided space for children and young people who wanted to be in the sporting spotlight themselves.
WINNER’S PODIUM & PEDESTALS \\
The sporting diversity of the event was particularly evident in details such as the winners’ podiums, which had to fit each team and all disciplines. A water polo team needs more space than a speed climber. satis&fy provided more than 30 winner’s podiums of different sizes and was also responsible for the optimal podium construction apart from the award ceremony.
Be in several places at the same time with satis&fy
Enabling the best for the best – in all disciplines, at every location, over all four days. Parallel. That was the claim of the Ruhr Games and satis&fy realized it in the trades sound, lighting and stage construction. Thanks to the 180 hectares of total area, not only the sports event itself was a big one, but also the area. Thus, a varied program could be offered to the spectators, which included several parallel sporting events on each day. In order to do justice to this, satis&fy worked logistically to the point, especially in the area of sound, and had a specially assigned technician on site at each venue to ensure smooth operations despite the simultaneity of the competitions.
Live entertainment, special construction, logistics and detail orientation
With an area of this size combined with a short set-up time window, the success of the event starts with the preparation. Having the material in the right place at the right time is essential. For this reason, great importance was attached to the labeling, loading sequence and color coding during the material preparation in Werne an der Lippe, which enabled unloading and set-up in Duisburg to proceed quickly.
This combination of live entertainment, special construction, logistics and attention to detail made the Ruhr Games a pioneer-class sporting event. As Official Supplier of the Invictus Games, we are looking forward to another major sports project in the coming months.
Photos: Sarah Kaiser, Tim Kramer, Helge Tscharn