The Groves Winter Opening

The challenge

An opening ceremony is twelve minutes of live output preceded by five weeks of build, with protocol guests, media positions and a reveal mechanism that cannot be rehearsed in public. Everything had to be tested behind closed gates.

Scope delivered

• Ceremony stage, protocol seating and media positions
• Reveal mechanism with a fully redundant backup
• AVL, projection and a scored opening film
• Guest flow, accreditation and VIP protocol
• Hospitality for 8,000 guests across three zones

How it was executed

The reveal was specified with a mandatory redundant mechanism, priced as its own line so no supplier could quietly value-engineer it out. Both mechanisms were tested seventeen times before the night.

Protocol drove the layout. Arrival routes, seating tiers and media positions were fixed before the stage design was finalised, because moving a protocol seat two days out is not a design change, it is a security re-approval.

The twelve minute live window ran to a called script with a full technical rehearsal at the same hour of the evening, under the same lighting conditions, three nights running.

Service categories on this project

Each one was written as its own work package, priced by competing partners against the same requirement spec.

• AVL
• Set Construction
• Crowd Management
• Catering
• Media Production

Client

BLVD Ruh City and The Groves

Venue

The Groves, Riyadh

Format

Riyadh

Delivered

2025