J&C Joel manufactured and installed a fabric mountain, measuring 35m tall with a base circumference of approximately 400m, using their white Ripstop material for the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.
The creation was a centrepiece of the spectacular opening show, which culminated in the mountain “collapsing” to the ground to reveal the next segment of the ceremony.
The design and manufacturing process started several months before the Games back in the UK and presented a challenge, primarily due to the scale and shape of the mountain.
J&C Joel’s Creative Manufacturing team, working in conjunction with their client, ceremony experts Stage One, managed to solve these issues through a rigorous R&D and sampling process. This not only ensured the effect was achieved but also established that the mountain could stand up to the demands of not only the main show but also a full rehearsal.
The mountain was manufactured in J&C Joel’s 80,000 sq ft facility in Halifax, England and then shipped to Vancouver in advance of the show. J&C Joel sent members of the design team together with a number of expert seamstresses to finish the mountain on site, with much of the finishing being carried out by hand by the seamstresses whilst suspended from harnesses 100ft in the air.
The end result was a spectacular set piece and one that established J&C Joel as experts in ceremony and large scale creative drapery.
