When the Weeknd hosts the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, the stage will be in the stands, not on the field, to facilitate the transition from game to performance. In the days leading up to the rally, workers visited a tent outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., To receive nasal swabs for Covid-19 tests. And although a smaller crew is hosting the show this year, the bathroom carts have spent three times as much water as usual – due to all the hand washing.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the giant logistics venture that is the rest-time program has become even more complicated.
In a typical year, a massive stage is rolled out in pieces on the soccer field, sound and lighting equipment is quickly set up by hundreds of stage workers working shoulder to shoulder, and fans flock to the lawn to witness the extravagance. This year there is a limit on how many people can participate in the production, dense crowd cheering fans are out of the question. And it is expected that only about 1,050 people will work to present the show, a fraction of the workforce in most years.
The pandemic halted live performances in much of the country, and many television glasses used their havens to ensure the safety of artists and audiences. However, the production team of the half-time program intended to put on a live performance in the stadium that they hoped would wow television audiences. To realize that dream, they need emergency plans, thousands of KN95 masks and a willingness to break with decades of restless tradition.
“It’s going to be another show, but it’s still going to be a live show,” said Jana Fleishman, executive vice president of Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, which was launched by the NFL in 2019. is, said. makes appearances for party games like the Super Bowl. “It’s a whole new way of doing things.”
One of the first logistical puzzles was to figure out how to pick up airport staff and transport them to and from the hotel, said Dave Meyers, the show’s CEO and chief operating officer of Diversified Production Services, a opportunity said. production company in New Jersey engaged in the rest time show.
“Usually you pack everyone in a van, throw the suitcases behind, everyone sits on each other’s shots,” Meyers said. “It can not happen.”
Instead, they rented more than 300 cars to transport them all safely.
Many of the company’s employees have been in Tampa for weeks and work outside the Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The complex contains 50-foot-long office wagons, which used to fit about 20 employees each, but are now limited to six. There are socially remote dining tents where people eat pre-packaged food, and a signal for which tables have been cleared: the tables with chairs tilted against it.
Outside the confines of the event, there is a tent where part-time show workers took Covid-19 tests. Staff are tested every 48 hours, but now that playday is near, key workers, including those close to the artists, are tested every day, Meyers said. Workers fill out a health check on their smartphones every day. When cleaned, they get a color-coded band with a new color every day, so no one can wear yesterday’s unnoticed.
Every time workers enter the stadium or a new area of the site, they scan a credentials that hang around their necks so the NFL knows who is positive other than Covid-19 or should go into quarantine. was in their area. And there are contingency plans if workers need to be quarantined: key employees, including Meyers, have undergraduates ready to take their places.
All these measures are being taken so that Weeknd Sunday can take the stage for a twelve-minute action aimed at rivaling years ago, when the country was not in the midst of a global health crisis.
“Our biggest challenge is to make this show look like it’s not influenced by Covid,” Meyers said.
The challenge emerged on Thursday at a news conference on the rest time program. When the Weeknd walked to the microphone, he took the room and remarked, “It’s quite empty.” His words were perhaps a preview of what the stadium might look like for people watching at home. (About 25,000 fans will be present – a little over a third of its capacity – and thousands of cardboard clippings will join.)
But the Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), a 30-year-old Canadian pop star with hits such as ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ and ‘Starboy’, is known for his theatrical flair. His work often had a brooding feel, an avant-garde lead and even blood and blood vessels (he promised to keep the rest time program “PG”).
This will be the second Super Bowl halftime show produced in part by Jay-Z and Roc Nation, recruited by the NFL at a time when artists are refusing to work with the league, in solidarity with former Colin Kaepernick San Francisco 49ers. quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
The NFL and the Roc Nation remain silent on the details of the program to build anticipation, so it’s unclear whether it will have the usual big-budget effects of past halftime shows, in which Jennifer Lopez is on a giant turn wicket, Katy, appeared. Perry rides an animatronic lion and Diana Ross leaves memorably by helicopter.
What is clear is that there will probably be nothing like the intimate moment Lady Gaga had with some of her fans during her performance in 2017, when she clasped her hands together and hugged one of them before returning to the stage. go for ‘Bad Romance’. The Weeknd takes the stage in a much more distant world.
Ken Belson reported.