Diriyah Season 2019
In 2018 TESS had the opportunity to work with Live Nation and the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia on the first large scale concerts the country had ever seen, in support of the inaugural Formula E e-Prix race in Riyadh.
By the time the 2019 race came around, the GSA had assembled an enormous, ambitious sporting and cultural festival, The Diriyah Season, to accompany it. Once again, we were on hand to assist both Live Nation and the GSA.
The Diriyah Season boasted international tennis, equestrian and motorsport alongside major concerts, and a temporary adventure/theme park. The centrepiece was the ‘Battle in the Dunes’ heavyweight boxing title fight between Joshua and Ruiz.
The complexity across these events means it’s hard to do it justice in a short summary. TESS provided two entirely separate teams; one working with Live Nation to provide safety, site design and concert operations support (Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Akon etc.). The other team consulted directly to the GSA, providing strategic planning and operational services to the whole Diriyah Season of events, sports and activations.
“There’s a common misconception that health and safety as being all about hard-hats and working conditions,” explains project lead Tim Roberts, “but the truth is the main gains are in event design, and in setting a quality and safety commitment within an organisation.” Of course, TESS had people on the ground to monitor day to day activities, but the most effective role was in setting agreed standards and bringing a positive HSE (health, safety, environment) message to the core of the organisation.
“Diriyah Season carried out over 25,000 site inductions for working crew and contractors,” explains Roberts. “For many of them it was their first and only safety training – which is itself a significant legacy for the project.”
The GSA delivered world-class sport and entertainment from a UNESCO World Heritage site, with no fixed facilities and little in the way of transport infrastructure. A global audience of over 130 million watched the live stream of the Joshua v’s Ruiz fight, underscoring the message that sport and entertainment are at the heart of Saudi’s re-birth as a modernising state.
We looked after public safety planning and the operation of the event control centre. With tens of thousands on site, the emphasis was on crowd dynamics, situational awareness and contingency planning. Luckily the company has plenty of experience in the span from boots on the ground to feet under the top table. As Tim puts it: “The GSA was a great client; they were prepared to listen even when the message was a difficult one, and our TESS team did a magnificent job – four months in Riyadh is a big ask for any crew!”
Safety and Operations teams:
For GSA: Tim Roberts, Hannah Charlton, Sophie Philip, John Berridge, Lis Poulsom, Doug Bruce, Steve Radic.
For Live Nation: Adam Blaxter, Matt Norman, Tim Spears, Mark Skates, Jon Lipton, Lily Robins, Ben Gohier, Lauren Thomas
We couldn’t have achieved the enormous safety management task alone, and a big shout goes out to Mo Haq, Lukasz Mart, Villu Viidul and the crew from HSafe Global.