Creating cohesion with Live Nation

Live Nation

Live Nation says that somewhere in the world, they stage an event every 18 minutes. Thousands of attendees, every hour, every day, all in need of one thing: food in one hand and a beverage in the other.

Arena Cart Concession Food and beverage LED lighting Modular Outdoor Point of sale Portable

Over the years, Live Nation amalgamated around 290 venues through management agreements, acquisitions, construction, and conversion. And while all venues were donned with the Live Nation logo, brand consistency fell short among each site. A mixed-bag of service areas for food, beverage, and spirits were mostly designed with varying levels of finish and style between locations.

The Challenge

Live Nation needed a harmonious identity between their carts, bars, and tents – one that could differentiate and identify the array of services offered yet tie everything together in a cohesive appearance. They also needed this implementation to happen quickly while keeping audiences and events uninterrupted.

Carts

The Cart Program was our first project with Live Nation and set standards for developing consistency in branding in the physical space. Our primary goal was to develop a consistent approach so that each cart could be understood from a distance – the products offered immediately recognizable while the design maintained cohesion.

It goes without saying these carts needed to be durable, easily moved, versatile, and would make customer transactions efficient and effortless.

Every cart was designed to be used individually or in groups, depending on the demand and requirements of the facility or event. Each can be fitted with ice wells and speed rails, beer coolers with multiple tap faucets, or set up for packaged beverage service.

Due to a tight turnaround, each department at Ikoniq was put to the test. CNC tubing fabricators and robotic routing machines were operated on double shifts, allowing us to deliver hundreds of carts and back bars in an 8 week period, setting up every cart before the start of the season at over 30 different venues. Because Ikoniq has a dedicated design group and in house manufacturing, we were able to successfully deliver on this program, irrespective of the challenging schedule.

Island Bars

After a successful launch of Live Nation carts, Ikoniq was approached with the next challenge: how can Live Nation serve thousands of bar patrons in less than an hour, in an upscale environment while carrying the brand to a new level? Bonus challenges: meet all local building codes for each municipality and erect each bar between events.

The Ikoniq Modular Team went to work, proposing that bars be fabricated off-site in Ikoniq’s Modular Fabrication Facility, then transported on flatbeds to installation sites and rapidly assembled.

Our team first determined foundation requirements and provided drawings to each venue’s General Manager, making sure everything below grade could be contracted to a local supplier and completed in their offseason.

In an effort to streamline the buyer experience, we designed each bar with 4 large glass door refrigerators in the center, a back bar, and 12 serving stations equipped with a POS and drink guns serving from traditional "bag in a box” flavored syrups. Die walls were set up to allow for plumbing changes and adding additional drink lines or carbonation.

These island bars were an instant success and quickly elevated the level of service in Live Nation venues – so much so that some venues elected to add second units. Each bar was erected over a 2 to 4 -day period to completion using an Ikoniq project manager, a fork truck, and local labor.

Modular Island Bars

Following up the success of our island bars, Live Nation wanted to continue island bar implementation in areas they never knew were possible. On brownfield sites that don’t allow permanent structures, containing a membrane just below the surface that cannot be penetrated, we needed to find a solution to serve patrons in a way that was indistinguishable from the other successful island bar deployments.

Starting with a similar sized and equipped bar, we bolted the roof structure together from a series of building blocks on site. The bar was designed to be shipped in 8 pieces and quickly assembled without disrupting the busy concert schedule. Once assembled the unit gave the appearance of permanence. However, once the season ended, bars could be disassembled and moved quickly to a new location or a different site.

Since no underground piping was possible, our team decided to add pumps, tanks with a generous supply of fresh water and various holding tanks for grey water.

The bars were an instant success and continue to exceed expectations.

Tents

Wanting to tie up all loose ends, Live Nation asked to harmonize the appearance of their portable tents at many of the venues. Like their carts, various signs, attachments, lighting, and styles had been collected over the years, giving the appearance of disconnected offerings.

Our team quickly designed a tent front that could be shipped common-carrier and quickly assembled on site by someone with minimal construction skills or tools.

Built for modification, each lighted sign panel can be easily changed by sliding signs in and out from the top of a custom-designed aluminum extrusion. Lighting was provided by solar collectors that turned on at dusk and would remain illuminated until the power was drained, only to be charged again the following.

Tent fronts made of aluminum were designed to be easily attached to tents. The lower portion of each tent front is filled in with rough-cut cedar planks for durability and the tops slide into receivers on the bottom – no tools required for assembly.

Fitted with a large attraction sign displaying services offered, in cohesive Live Nation colors and styles, gives each tent front a polished look, providing a tremendous enhancement of the Live Nation Brand.