How to use Unesco world heritage sites as gig venues

We caught up with organisers Joe Barnett and Johnny Scratchley from Dimensions and Outlook Festivals on the logistics of designing large scale events in Unesco World Heritage site, Pula Ampitheatre

'When you experience events in traditional spaces the arena is designed to focus all of your attention on the performance' (Dan Medhurst)

What is it like to manoeuvre a Unesco World Heritage site and turn it into an arena?

Its everything you would imagine; incredibly restrictive and challenging but equally motivating and rewarding. Our production team have refined the show each year and know the sites limits and its weakest spots, but you cannot by any means rest in your laurels with a site as important as this.

What special rules do you need to follow in the planning?

I think one of the most interesting rules that we have to abide by is the fact that the space is used on a daily basis as a tourist destination. The last thing we or the city want is to stop people being able to come in and see the site so we keep the arena open almost right until doors open. I recall one year this resulting in a rather surreal experience for some unwitting tourists walking into a completely empty amphitheatre to realise they were being serenaded by Ms Lauryn Hill during her soundcheck.

What is the advantage of using this site above a traditional event space?

When you experience events in traditional spaces the arena is designed to focus all of your attention on the performance. However, at a site like the Amphitheatre you cannot, as a customer, performer or member of the production team, get away from the significance of the venue you are stood in. Its beauty and its historical importance take your breath away let alone being aware of these things at the same time as seeing Grace Jones striding up and down the stage. That additional aspect of the experience is one you cant build or create artificially and is truly special.

How long have you been using the amphitheatre?

We first move the events to Pula in 2010 and were invited to use the amphitheatre in 2013, which was an incredible honour and show of respect from the Mayor. Since then we have had the privilege of hosting The Wailers, Jurassic Park, Damian Marley, DJ Shadow and Dizzee Rascal to name a few from our Outlook Festival concerts and Caribou, Darkside, Bonobo, Little Dragon, Fourtet, Massive Attack, Kamasi Wahsington, Moderat and grace Jones for Dimensions.

Do you have any stories in particular from your first time using it? How difficult was it?

There is a strange contradiction in one's head when you are first working in a place like this; on the one hand you want to wrap the site up in bubble wrap and preserve it, but on the other you remember this structure has been stood solidly through centuries and has seen a lot more drama than anything we could bring to it.

I think my overriding memory of the first year was the feeling of relief as the last customer left and we realised that it was all still standing and we might actually be invited back to do it all over again.

What can Dimensions / Outlook goers expect this time around from the amphitheatre?

We are incredibly excited about the shows this year. For Dimensions we are bringing Nils Frahm back to the arena and are incredibly proud to have secured Kraftwerk 3-D, which i think for anyone who has seen the show will know is going to be and incredibly special show especially in this location.

Meanwhile, for Outlook we welcome back Bonobo to the Amphitheatre and without giving too much away, this is the last show of their tour and I'm sure will be putting all their last summer energy into this event. For the second year in a row we are hosting our very on 20 piece performance, the Outlook Orchestra alongside the legendary David Rodigan.

How important to you think it is to use world heritage sites as gig spaces?

The attitude to celebrate the assets you have and to truly experience them is such a refreshing approach and it is at the core of Croatian culture.

By no means are all site with the significance of the Pula Amphitheatre wise to open themselves up to large scale events, but i think using spaces with other aspects of cultural or historical significance as venues for special music performance is an incredibly powerful way to engage people. I think you can see that with live shows in the Tate, in the tower of London moat, Hampton court etc.

This year the Outlook Orchestra performed an incredible show at Somerset House and it brought another dimension to the show being in such a special show.

Dimensions also uses Pula’s abandoned fort as one of its stages, how is that space to manoeuvre?

The fort is another incredibly special location and in many ways is more difficult to navigate that the amphitheatre. We host 11 stages within and around the walls of a 19th century Austro-Hungarian fortress, with one of the stages, aptly named the Moat, submerged into the 6m deep moat surrounding the fort.

With an incredible underground network of tunnels beneath the fort there are a lot of nooks and crannies that we have to secure and make safe to UK standards. So, yes we certainly have our work cut out every year, but we would never swap it for a an easy life in a flat field.

You can get tickets for the Dimensions opening party here, and Outlook here