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WI offers Cup of Hospitality to Kazakhstan

Belgian based WIcreations working for Italian production company Balich WS was asked to engineer and fabricate the ‘Cup of Hospitality’ for Kazakhstan’s recent 550th anniversary celebration show in the capital Astana.

The event - attended by five heads of state, VIPs and dignitaries and 7000 public - took place in the new Ice Palace venue. For WIcreations, the project followed on their work at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and WI’s team of five was led by Yves Vervloet.

The cup was based on a traditional Kazak drinking goblet and was required to fit under the stage in a depth of 500 mm, from where it had to rise out of the floor, be flown up and disappear into the roof of the venue. Vervloet and the team were presented with the basic creative concept and shape by Balich WS’s project manager Andrea Faini, and from there proposed a custom design solution comprising 16 concentric aluminium rings that all folded into one another giving the entire construction a folded height of 400 mm.

The largest ring had an 8 metre diameter and the total unfolded height of the piece was 8 metres. The rings were connected by a series of nylon wires, and as the cup was raised, the rings below unfolded one-by-one to complete the curved shape. The total weight was around 700 Kgs. The rings were edged with around a kilometre of 24 Volt warm white LED strip lighting.

The cup was constructed in WI’s workshop at Heist-op-den-Berg in Belgium, then packaged up and freighted to the venue in Astana, where the final assembly took place. It was picked up by a 1200 Kg winch system (supplied by Stage One) via a central pick-point and 10 nylon wires securing it to the upper ring. Wiring and all the necessary elements to power the LED strips was also built in to the top ring and discreetly connected and run to the lower rings.

The cup was one of the major props and made its entrance at a key moment in the highly visual all-action 2-hour show recalling the history and achievements of Kazakhstan complete with lighting, HD widescreen projections and a fully choreographed dancing/singing/performing cast of 3250 people, 20 horses and 8 camels.

(Rehearsal Photography: Yves Vervloet)

www.wicreations.com

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