Christopher BarrettPromoters of new UK festival series Labyrinth (cap, 3,500) have employed the services of acclaimed metalwork designer Tom Dixon to design and weld a stage for its two events at Tofte Manor in Bedfordshire.
Dixon, whose metalwork is in permanent collections in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was asked by Labyrinth’s promoters to create a stage that “explored the relationship between music, design and art”, and enabled the audience to move around it.
The stage will only be used at the festivals at Tofte Manor, and afterwards will be left in place in the grounds of the 17th century manor house for vegetation to grow over it.
“We will re-use the stage at the venue in years to come and we wanted to make sure that on the 363 days a year that it’s not used for a festival stage it makes sense in the natural surroundings of Tofte Manor,” said Labyrinth Events co-founder Nick Castleman. “After the events, we will grow climbing plants off the design so that the structure slowly moulds into the environment of the venue.”
The Labyrinth Presents DJ Koze & Co event on 7 August and Labyrinth Open Air show on 18 September are being promoted by Castleman and Michael Dicks, with We Are The Fair overseeing production.
“These are our first major outdoor events,” said Castleman. “All of our previous events have been nightclub shows in London, Bristol and Durham for anywhere between 200 and 2,000 guests.”
Castleman said the intention was to position one of the Tofte Manor stages under a treehouse in the woods at the venue but that wasn’t possible: “We wanted to make this into a positive and have always liked the concept of the worlds of music, art and fashion and all parts of creative culture combining. So, we decided we would try to find an artist to work with us to design a 360° stage. We were fortunately introduced to Tom, who has a deep love of music too. The rest is history.”