Event Report: Alisa and Morgan report from the USS Midway

Producer Morgan Connacher and Alisa Walsh

We love historic locations. Always memorable, imbued with ambiance - and many challenges that we are proud to master, as we did recently on the aircraft carrier museum USS Midway in San Diego.

We have done HISTORIC before, in the ancient Forum of Pompeii, Italy, on Ellis Island in New York, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and on the USS Hornet in Alameda Bay, Northern California, to name a few. The results are always worth the extra effort - every guest will remember these very special occasions. The location provides the opportunity to create a lifetime memory.


The Event:
We produced an evening dinner event for nearly 1000 guests during the summer of 2019.

Added Challenges:

Alisa Walsh:
"This particular event was confirmed a very short period of time before it was to take place and to complicate things further, we had to deal with a major national holiday in the middle of production. The USS Midway was therefore in full season and all their staff already had a very packed calendar. We are very grateful that the in-house event staff went above and beyond to assist us in confirming all the details on short notice."

Our San Diego based producer Morgan Connacher:
"Another added challenge in this location are the many historic artifacts that are part of the museum and have to be safeguarded. The Midway also has more stringent fire marshal rules. We again had the great luck of partnering with the amazingly detail oriented and professional event staff that helped us work the existing objects into our design needs.


Logistics:

Morgan Connacher:
"Since the USS Midway was not originally created for events and is open to the public as a museum, the load in and load out can be challenging.
The USS Midway loads almost everything with a fork lift and semi closed 20’ x 8’ x 8’ container and runs on a tight schedule so the parking lot isn’t overloaded with trucks and deliveries.
We developed an extremely detailed load-in plan, providing minute information about how many trucks and how many people were going to come in and how long it would take to unload each vehicle to arrange the load-in with the museum. All of our activity had to be tightly coordinated with all the regular deliveries and removals coming to the ship, such as sanitary needs, trash management and more.
Once on board we used an aircraft elevator to load almost all needed equipment onto the flight deck. We staged a reception in the hangar bay which is mid-level on the ship and a dinner on the flight deck.

The USS Midway is open to the public during the load in times and vendors need to be cautious of the guests, size of the equipment they are bringing in as well as the surface of the hanger bay and flight deck. The historic tie downs for aircraft are still in place on both decks. Sailors call the staircases "knee knockers" for good reason. It is essential to watch your step at all times."

Design Challenges:

"We needed a specific design of chairs and tables for nearly 1000 guests and it turned out that not all of them were available in San Diego. We had to source some furnishings in different cities and ensure a timely arrival and include more vendors into our load-in plan. We needed a very large team of workers to set it all up on both decks, with the added complication of working around the visiting public during museum business hours. Event areas were cordoned off but tourists happily took seats anyway. We waited until the very last possible minute, right after the museum's closing, to place linens, florals and place settings.

One more complication we took into consideration: seagulls! They do not care about your pristine linens on the flight deck. We just got lucky that they missed the deck that night. 

Lighting a former naval vessel means adhering to strict safety rules that take into consideration the height of the ship, its position in the bay, safety of air and harbor traffic in the area and possible wind exposure. We created 40"x40" lighting rigs that were 23 feet high that we used to light a very extensive concert the client had coordinated, as well as the backdrops for all entertainment segments."

Entertainment Ideas:

The Midway offers great opportunities to include historic aspects.

• Former sailors volunteer as docent guides to take guests to see the ship. 
• Navy bands and large choirs work very well in such large spaces.
• USO Style Revues and swing dancers blend well with the historic theme. 
• We brought 
• military fly-bys, 
• skydivers and 
• close proximity pyrotechnics to the USS Hornet and Pearl Harbor in the past.

More Entertainment Ideas: Cirque and Aerial Acts

We work with many international clients whose guests are often not English-speaking. Cirque shows are a great choice for entertainment on the USS Midway. Yes, the logistics are daunting but we love to work with our friends at Imagination Entertainment who are San Diego based and have 15 years experience producing and rigging shows at this site.

Steve Gale, President: "We have created various free standing aerial rigs that are in compliance with the strict standards of the USS Midway and are a quick easy solution to bring guests aerial acrobatics and cirque-style entertainment. Along with the aerial acrobatics we have many other forms of entertainment that are a perfect fit to the USS Midway and the historical nature of the museum. Because the USS Midway was not originally created for events, the load in and load out can be challenging, but understanding the procedural aspects put in place by the Midway, are key! Furthermore, the nature of the location poses specific conditions. There are padeyes (tie down points for aircraft) all over the ship which can be disastrous for small wheels on a vendors cart or a pair of heels but are great for tying down and securing the freestanding aerial rigs or truss structures created for an event. We are happy to share a video of our Midway work."