Aerialists Wow at LinkedIn Christmas Party

Brief

We have been lucky to previously create event entertainment for LinkedIn at another iconic London venue (Tower of London), and this time they brought us to LSO St Lukes. The beautiful historical Angican Church that is the home of The London Symphony Orchestra who we would be collaborating with. Our friends at Story Events were managing the whole event and we always love working with them, so we knew everything was in safe hands. The brief was the client wanted two aerialists to perform aerial silks to the breathtaking sound of the orchestra. They would perform twice – one would be a choreographed set to the opening orchestra performance of ‘You Got the Love’ by Florence And The Machine and the other would be a fifteen minute ambient set whilst the food stations opened, giving guests something to watch whilst they were waiting in line. Christmas party themed events are always fun so we couldn’t wait.

Planning

With the booking of aerial based artists, health and safety of the artists is paramount. Before taking any aerial booking we always ensure that the space is suitable to be rigged for aerial artists. If it is not we can offer some ground support options to rig at height or offer free standing rigs at a lower level. Aerial booking always start with communication between ourselves and the tech/venue manager, looking at where we are rigging from and what equipment we need to do that. We have a selection of rigging equipment and a rigging team so this will all have been factored into the job at the booking stages. On this occasion we were bringing in our own rigger on the day to get everything set up. 

We then confirmed our two aerialists and sent them the recording of the track that needed synchro-choreography. We picked a duo that have worked together regularly so they could rehearse together at the same time more easily. We aligned costumes from our costume department and we were ready to go. We’re feeling Christmassy just thinking about it!

Event

We arrived early afternoon with our rigger to get everything set up at the venue, making sure that we could attach the performers aerial silks to the truss with ease at the dress rehearsal. Did you know that aerialists only use their own performance equipment? They need to have the exact size or elasticity they are used to, so they always bring their own apparatus. We asked our performers to bring light and bright white aerial silks so we could have that feeling of twinkling snow with their white and cream costumes.

The dress rehearsal was with the orchestra and after practicing entrances and exits, lighting and paging (where we page the the silks to the side of the room or pull them up between performance sets). We were ready to dazzle the event with aerial Christmas magic.

The look, sound and atmosphere of the performance were indescribable, guests had their jaws dropped and the aerialists and musicians wowed them fully. It was a magical night of music and aerial dance that we will never forget.