Rock on

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Dubai's Desert Rock Festival.

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Slash - say no more.

A last-minute venue change did little to dampen the spirits of punters or Centre Stage Management's ambitions for this year's Desert Rock Festival in Dubai.

With just four weeks to go before showtime, the organiser of Dubai's Desert Rock Festival, Centre Stage Management (CSM), was again forced to look for a new venue at short notice.

Following the closure of former venue the Dubai Country Club in November last year, plans to launch a permanent presence at the Al Sahra Resort in Dubailand had to be shelved after construction work on the dedicated venue fell behind schedule.

"Over the five years we have been organising Desert Rock we have learned to expect the unexpected," says Lara Teperdjian, vice president of CSM.

Following the largely trouble-free staging of Carlos Santana's showcase gig at the new Dubai Festival City (DFC) venue in February, CSM decided to shift Desert Rock to the same venue.

"The switch affected some plans for the worse and some for the better," says Teperdjian.

"The DFC venue was obviously not going to accommodate any camping facilities, so we had to scrap those plans, although we do plan to revisit them once the permanent venue at Al Sahra is established.

"DFC does have its advantages however. It's centrally located and is also a very popular shopping precinct in Dubai, with great access to transport and a large parking area."

One major issue that confronted CSM in the lead up to the show related to the distribution of tickets, which didn't officially go on sale until four days before the show.

"The ticketing problem was out of our hands, it was a regulatory issue which I can't really discuss but it was not an error on our side," says Teperdjian. "We were very pleased with the attendance given these issues. The festival attracted 28,000 punters over the course of the weekend and I think we can attribute this to the calibre of artists that performed on both days," claims Teperdjian.

CSM sought out Thailand-based Malcolm McInnes, site manager at last year's Desert Rock, to reprise his role at this year's event, as well as assuming responsibility for production management. McInnes appointed a team of engineers to work over the course of the two day event.

"We brought a first class audio team over from the UK headed up by Mike Warren (FOH) and John James (monitors). We also had four other engineers, Jon Lewis, Barry McLeod, Andy Squibb and Andreas Andreou. All six were liaising with SLS Production's own local crew," says McInnes.

"Mike and John are a safe pair of old hands! Last year in the UK they managed LIVE 8 London, the Princess Diana Memorial Concert and Glastonbury. I also brought in Bob Samithisawad, with whom I have worked closely on a number of shows in Asia, to assist me with the live aspects of the production."

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