U2’s 360-Degree Stage Takes Shape At Carter-Finley

Posted on: Friday, October 2nd, 2009
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RALEIGH — Since Sunday, Sept. 27, crews have worked to transform the home of the Wolfpack from one of the most exciting venues in college football into the largest concert stage ever created.

And on Saturday, Oct. 3., nearly 60,000 people will jam into Carter-Finley Stadium to see U2’s first Triangle appearance since the Irish rockers performed at Kenan Stadium on April 23, 1983 during their War Tour.

U2’s production director Jake Berry says they started working on the design for a 360-degree stage about four or five years ago.

“It was little pieces of napkins, little pieces of paper and the design kept developing until about a year ago the idea of this thing came up and it just evolved from there,” Berry said.

The idea for the stage comes from the desire to give fans an intimate live experience of the self-proclaimed “best band in the world.” To accomplish such a fete, U2 enlisted the help of designer Willie Williams and architect Mark Fisher.

Once the concept was set and the stage designed, Belgian company Stageco was brought in to construct the set — which requires the use of high-powered hydraulic systems — at stadiums all over the world with each build taking four days.

“That was the object: To make something so large, to make the stadium so small … the fans would get the ultimate stadium intimate experience,” Berry said.

Centered around a 150-foot pylon, a 54-ton cylindrical video screen that opens to a size as large as two doubles tennis courts hovers above the stage. The screen, along with the band’s stage and production equipment, takes 12 hours to load into each venue.

“We use about 120 locals and 137 on touring production crews, and we have 32 people to put the steel up,” Berry said.

U2 tour director Craig Evans says on Saturday when the stadium lights go off and the stage lights go on, a truly unique experience is exactly what the fans will get.

“The band goes on the stage and everybody in here will get a chill that goes up their arm thinking the electricity that goes on in this building gets shared by everyone,” said Evans. “It’s really quite an experience.”

The last time U2 was in the Triangle was in 1983 at UNC’s Kenan Stadium. The band was scheduled to be in Raleigh in 1997, but canceled due to damage to a video backdrop.