Managing Director and Production Manager at Sightline Productions Erwin Rintjema was tapped to be head of production for Eurovision Song Contest 2021 very early on in the preparations for the international competition in 2020. He was to be responsible for handling technical logistics for the massive live event, which is also broadcast live to almost 200 million viewers. But when the show was postponed for a year due to Covid-19, he then had to coordinate the show while also implementing pandemic safety features covering everything from remote early meetings to the design for performance spaces within the arena.
A veteran of multiple large-scale events, including many at this year’s Eurovision location, Ahoy Arena, Rotterdam, Rintjema spoke to Live Design during final rehearsals.
Scroll below Q&A and video to see site plans of the arena set up.
Live Design: Last year’s event was postponed only a few weeks before the contest was due to take place. How much did the plan change?
Erwin Rintjema: It would have been nice if we could have just kicked back, had some fun and waited for April and May again! Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but we have had some benefits from having done the process the year before. [Sightline] had never done a Eurovision before, so it was our first rodeo, but every year with Eurovision is a 10-month sprint that is full on from day one. There are a lot of moments when you think, “Oh it would have been great if I’d known this two months ago or one month ago” but you keep on sprinting. We were ready to go last year when the decision was made that we had to postpone, so having done that once really helped us this year. This time we knew what was coming, what was going to be around the next corner, and we were better prepared for it.
On the other hand, of course we’re dealing with a global pandemic so that had a huge impact on everything that we’ve been doing – even just trying to deal with [remote meetings] because it was relatively new to all of us a year ago. But with the experience of the previous year it has worked out well, because from the start of load in everything has gone very smoothly and the atmosphere has been very good. No screaming, no shouting, no running! Just everyone being very professional.
LD: What was the main impact of the pandemic on the production?
ER: The number of audience members last year would have been around 9,000 because it is a huge production [the arena usually holds 16,000] and we are extremely happy that we are able to have an audience of 3,500 because it has been over a year since anybody has done a show in front of a live audience. It is a huge relief to be able to feel that vibe and give that energy to the artists because we may not have been allowed to have an audience.
The PA has stayed the same [as last year] but we are now switching off some gear aimed at empty seats because we don’t want a hollow sound for the TV audio. The guys have been very hard at work to increase the amount of audience microphones and specifically focus them where we have the audience so we can enhance that vibe and make it feel to the audience at home as though we have a full house. I think the fans who have been able to get tickets will be so excited they’ll make up for the lack of numbers.
LD: How are you handling audience safety?
ER: Pretty early on we realized that having audience members standing on the floor without social distancing would be impossible so we made the design for the green room much bigger so it really embraces the second stage and the runway. The energy on the floor has to come from the delegations in their green room booths, and I think they will provide it and the layout looks beautiful. I’ve even heard people say, “Wow, why didn’t they do this before?” I’m sure the ticketing people do not agree because they would have loved to have been able to sell more tickets but it really fits very well in the design.
In this venue we are lucky that the audience tiers go pretty close to the floor so the 3,500 people are mainly going to be seated on the first tier as close to the action as possible and then slowly fanning out on the second tier as well.
Watch head of production Erwin Rintjema discuss keeping the crew and performers safe.
Click to expand Venue overview
Click to enlarge Arena Floor Plan-First Tier
Click to enlarge Arena Floor Plan Tier Two
Click to enlarge Arena Ground Floor Plan
