Boutique festivals are all the rage – but how about one so compact it fits in the boot of your car?
That’s exactly what Get Me Connected has created. A 1/50th scale model of a music festival featuring everything from main stage and a crowd of thousands, to marquees, food stalls, porta-loos, tents and, of course, state-of-the-art WiFi masts.
The model is a great way to show people how Get Me Connected technology is actually deployed at events. It’s also a lot of fun and certainly has the wow factor. It’s been a huge hit at industry events, drawing people to the GMC stand to peer at all the realistic details and take photos.
The miniature scene was the brainchild of Get Me Connected CEO Adam Steadman. The resulting model was the painstaking work of renowned model-maker Bob Hinks whose previous work has featured in some of the most iconic moments in TV, film and advertising of recent decades, including adverts for Hamlet cigars and the BBC ‘idents’ that appear between programmes.
“The model took about six weeks to make,” Bob said. “It was loosely based on a photo of Farmfestival which Adam sent me when we first discussed the project. After sticking 2,000 people in the centre crowd, it took a few days to get the superglue off my fingers. Since the model was in a case and was to be transported, everything on the site had to be well stuck down so each van, car and tent had a wire passed through the base, bent over and glued. The undulating base was made like a contour map, with layers of plywood which was sanded smooth. It was all painstaking work.”
Bob used model railway figures as the tiny festival-goers, bulk buying 6,000 and then discarding or modifying those that looked more ‘commuter’ than ‘rock fan’. He even discovered a new, more durable way to create realistic grass while creating the festival scene.
“The traditional way of doing the grass is to flock it – you take fine nylon fibre, put glue on the surface and spray the stuff on it to make grass, but it usually doesn’t have much strength, so this time I used velvet. I bought a metre of it from Designers Guild and it worked – it’s really strong so I could stick things to it more firmly.”
GMC boss Adam said: “The model is fantastic – a real talking point as well as being a practical and visual way to explain to people how our technology works in a large event situation. Bob has done an amazing job. Everyone who sees the model absolutely loves it.
“And the whole thing comes in a sturdy flight case, so at the end of the day you just pop the lid on and go – a lot easier than packing up after a real-life festival.”
Bob was working as a photographer’s assistant when he was set the challenge of building a model as a prop during a shoot for JCB. He was paid £300 for a weekend’s work at a time when he was earning £35 a week, and so made model-making his career and never looked back.
He set up Asylum Models and Effects in 1983 and it quickly went on to become the major industry player it is today. Bob retired 12 years ago and now takes on commissions that offer a challenge.
“I enjoy the crack of the project,” he said. “I always like it when someone phones up with a new project that you’ve not done before. It’s like a puzzle – lots of little things you have to work out how to do.
“So I really enjoyed the challenge of making the festival model, as I haven’t made anything like it for many years. A lot of people wouldn’t think of something like that nowadays, but it was a terrific idea.”
Bob can be contacted on 07785 346072.
