Alton Towers Hire

[tomrbland]

Hi,

 

This is my first post to Blue Room, I haven't yet contributed to anything as it's all I can do to keep up with the flow of new topics. As soon as A-levels are out of the way I hope to be able to contribute my small amount of knowledge to the forum.

 

Ok, so my question is this: Does anyone know if Alton Towers has a specific hire company that they use for their large events? I know the Entertainment team don't have anything to do with it (or they denied it whenever I have asked). But I know they don't own line arrays that size anyway (I can hear them at the moment!).

 

The reason I am trying to find out is that I am looking for work experience this summer and I live 2 mins from Alton Towers. I have a week already sorted out at Autograph, but I want to try and get as much experience as I can this summer before I (hopefully) start my degree in Live Event technology at Derby in September. (Everybody has told me don't worry about getting work experience go and have some fun! But getting work experience IS fun!)

 

(Sorry if this should be in "The Next Generation" I wasn't sure)

 

Thanks for reading this!

Tom

[congo5]

Tom,

 

Alton Towers own Two Line Arrays. The Entertainments Team have there own Technical Team, However they have been known to hire equiptment in equiptment during busy periods.

 

Work Experience at Alton Towers, or with an Associate Company may prove difficult Depending on your age, I know, as I have experienced problem gainning work Experience due to my age.

 

The Entertainments Team at Alton Towers should have no problem providing you with details of there hire companies.

 

If you have no luck with Alton Towers Direct, you could always try "Merlin Entertainments", Who Own

"Alton Towers","Chessington world of adventures","London Dungeons","Legoland Winsor","London Eye","Thorpe Park". Just to name a few

 

Goodluck with your Career

 

Tom Aldridge

[tomrbland]

Cheers Tom,

 

I had work experience with the Ents Team 2 years ago (sitting in the theater doing the same show 3 times a day). Since then I have been asking around on how to get in to doing some rodie work for their gigs. I have to say the Ents Team have been very unhelpful, never answering emails etc so I gave up. I know the Ents team do the scarefest events (apart for the laser show 2 years ago) but I was under the impression that they had nothing to do with the live gigs at the park.

 

Thanks for your help.

[danburns]

I used to work as an ents technician there, as did a couple of other people on here - a lot of things came out of their own stock. Not there any more so can't comment on the recent gigs. Some of the theatre shows can be repetitive, but scarefest is a bit of variety!

 

If you want to work for Alton Towers, they advertise on www.altontowersjobs.com. Keep an eye out on there if you want to work for towers themselves.

[congo5]

Tom,

Alton Towers have for the past year used there own equiptment, and are planning on doing so.

 

Hope this Helps. Merlin Entertainments do Offer work Experience, it might be worth contacting them first

 

Tom

[Joe Bleasdale]

I had work experience with the Ents Team 2 years ago (sitting in the theater doing the same show 3 times a day). Since then I have been asking around on how to get in to doing some rodie work for their gigs. I have to say the Ents Team have been very unhelpful, never answering emails etc so I gave up. I know the Ents team do the scarefest events (apart for the laser show 2 years ago) but I was under the impression that they had nothing to do with the live gigs at the park.

 

It depends on the gig... Scarefest is all the Ents team. I was there for Scarefest last year. I ran the Theatre 5 days a week. The park has the majority of the staff; they run the Pirate show and Theatre show as well as Scarefest when it is on. The Hotel has 2 technicians; the conference centre has 1 technician. The rest are generally on or around the park. For example Pink is doing a gig at Towers this summer... that as far as I am aware, will be done by Pink's designers etc. The Ents team will just assist, as from what I heard when I was there, it is external.

 

For the shows Alton Towers host, like the hotel shows, pirate show, theatre show and Scarefest - their own equipment is used. They have a wide variety. The hotel show uses Avo install dimmers and a pearl tiger with a load of white Mac 250 entours. Whilst the Theatre uses Arri install dimmers and a Jands Vista T2 outputting to 20 or more Coemar 250 prospots, which is triggered via a Medialon V4 system. Sound in the theatre is an LS9 running a mid size PA. The laser show was run on 2 of the old Compulite desks (Micron 4D) that they still have in storage. As far as I am aware they ran the Ice show back when it was running too. The laser show was designed by Simon Horsley the Tech Manager there (and a very good one too). At least that’s what I remember being told.

 

Not sure how work experience would work in Ents... But they will have jobs advertised for Scarefest in the next few months. Working there is great, the Ents team and other teams you work closely with are very good, and it is a lot of fun.

 

Hope this helps,

[tomrbland]

For the shows Alton Towers host, like the hotel shows, pirate show, theatre show and Scarefest - their own equipment is used. They have a wide variety. The hotel show uses Avo install dimmers and a pearl tiger with a load of white Mac 250 entours. Whilst the Theatre uses Arri install dimmers and a Jands Vista T2 outputting to 20 or more Coemar 250 prospots, which is triggered via a Medialon V4 system. Sound in the theatre is an LS9 running a mid size PA.

And an there's still an incredible amount sitting in the big top.

 

The laser show was run on 2 of the old Compulite desks (Micron 4D) that they still have in storage. As far as I am aware they ran the Ice show back when it was running too. The laser show was designed by Simon Horsley the Tech Manager there (and a very good one too). At least that’s what I remember being told.

Simon told me that was done externally!

 

Ah well, thanks for your help guys, I was just trying to see if it would be easy to get on to. Looks like I wont be going back there for summer :) Never mind, more time for experimenting with DIY gear! (got some PIC projects on hold for after exams)

 

Thanks for the info, its amazing how much rubbish I get told!

 

Cheers

Tom

[kitlane]

Hi Tom

 

Hope to see you in Derby in September.

 

Kit

[tomrbland]

Hey,

 

I don't think I managed to speak to you on the open day I came to? But I had a good long chat with Simon in his office and he didn't manage to put me off! I can't wait to start (depending on results) in September!

[back_ache]

DIY gear! (got some PIC projects on hold for after exams)

OT If you haven't already it's worth checking out Arduino as another platform option, people have done some clever stuff with DMX, Ethernet and web with it.

[tomrbland]

Woo another language to learn :)

 

I keep meaning to learn C. To be honest I was going to start a fresh with everything and learn C. MPLAB is the software we have at home but I'll have a better look in to Arduino at some point.

 

Cheers :)

[Grum]

For the shows Alton Towers host, like the hotel shows, pirate show, theatre show and Scarefest - their own equipment is used. They have a wide variety. As far as I am aware they ran the Ice show back when it was running too. The laser show was designed by Simon Horsley the Tech Manager there (and a very good one too). At least that’s what I remember being told.

 

People seem to forget how long Alton Towers have been running an entertainments department. I worked there when I was 16, with Simon (who had just started) back in 1996. In those days, we ran the ice show, a magic show, a 3D cinema, loads of street theatre along and an outdoor show in the piazza with responsibility for all park sound and effect lighting. Over time they've employed good staff and built up a wealth of experience and have some impressive equipment which is probably due to having bigger budgets than a lot of theatres.

 

They put on more shows per year than a lot of theatres do in two, alright they might be the same show several times a day but....

 

I don't know about now but back then they ran a pretty tight operation. No venue was allowed to open with so much as a single lamp out (this included the little P-lamps on the stairs not just the obvious show related ones), everything was checked and signed off by each technician when they arrived at a venue, all technicians were rehearsed to work in every role within the park and were rotated to keep them from A) getting bored and B) forgetting what they had to do in each role. Oh and one other thing, they were very strict about uniform, including ther colour of your socks, every morning you had to roll up your trousers and prove you were wearing the correct colour socks even if that meant removing your 10 eyelet DM's that hid your socks from view!

 

If you see Simon tell him Graham said hello, he'll remember me as the guy whos caravan bunrt down with him inside it!! :)

[tomrbland]

he'll remember me as the guy whos caravan bunrt down with him inside it!! :)

 

Epic!

 

Allot has changed at Towers, there isn't as many "large scale" shows such as the ice rink etc, there's the little Pirate bay show, the old Theater is still running, then there's the 2 Hotels. They do now (as far as I have seen) do shows with the odd fixture not working, but the standard is still high in comparison to other shows. (I haven't been to a show in over a year though, so please forgive me if it has changed back!)

[Grum]

They do now (as far as I have seen) do shows with the odd fixture not working, but the standard is still high in comparison to other shows. (

 

When I was there I think we only had one moving light and that was a tiger scan in the magic theatre.

[tomrbland]

Wow when I was doing my work experience there (2 years ago) they were over run with Evl Prospot 250's to the point where when one broke we just fetched another one from the big top! Unless of course they have ha a big clear out in the past few years, I'm a little out of touch, I was (embarrassingly) a towers nerd up until about a year and a half ago!