THE 2024 AFL GRAND FINAL PRE-GAME ENTERTAINMENT

Katy Perry Roars in Melbourne with Mushroom

It was the Big Day in September for AFL fans on the 28th as the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions squared off for the Grand Final. Sadly for the Swans, Brisbane ended up crushing them by 60 points, but the real winner was the pre-game extravaganza produced and delivered by Mushroom Group.

2024 was the fourth year of Mushroom producing the pre-game show, (note that Mushroom Events have been the production designer and supplier since 2012 or “post Meatloaf” as some like to say) and they continued to deliver. With Robbie Williams’ excellent turn in 2022 followed by KISS’s rock bombast in 2023, Katy Perry had big acts to follow, and turned in a performance that was universally praised.

In a move that some pundits said gave the Brisbane Lions an unfair advantage, Katy spectacularly entered the field standing atop a futuristic cyborg vehicle, piloted by a hidden driver within, belting out ‘Roar’. A long silver train flew behind it, reminiscent of the iconic scene in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. She dismounted and went straight into ‘Dark Horse’, flanked by professional dancers, and made her way up one of the incredible centrepiece set’s ramps.

Hits including ‘California Gurls’ and ‘Teenage Dream’ were in the mix, flanked by two new songs from her new album 143. A barely-kept secret emerged from within the stage on a lift – our own Tina Arena, who duetted on ‘I Kissed a Girl’ before Katy in turn duetted on Arena’s ‘Chains’. The whole spectacular concoction was brought to a pyrotechnic climax with mega-hit ‘Firework’ as pyros blasted the MCG.

The critical verdict was in almost immediately on digital media, with rave reviews coming in from sport and media journos alike.

My favourite was from “Australia’s Oldest Newspaper”, the satirical Betoota Advocate, who bare minutes after the smoke had cleared, posted a news story headlined ‘Okay, That Was Pretty Sick’, and the first line of which was “Yep, credit to the head honchos at the AFL, that was f&^%$g awesome.”

To say there was lot going on in the roughly 18-minute show is an understatement. The 200 dancers at one point all carried massive silver inflatables (more on the unintended consequences of that later), and there was AR in the broadcast and on the big screen at the ‘G. For the first time ever, lighting got DMX control of the MCG’s famous light towers, spelling out ‘K’ and ‘P’, as well as doing chases. And of course, lots and lots of pyro.

I sat down with Technical Producer Travis Hogan after the fact to talk about how it was all done, what was hidden under the stage, and just what the go was with those inflatables. We start with the amazing stage:

“The stage was a piece of art; it was beautiful,” enthuses Travis. “The concept came from the US-based creative team of The Square Division in consultation with Silent House, who are Katy’s creative team, and then the whole thing was a collaboration between all of us.

51 stage pieces wheeled out and bolted together. We partnered with Cliftons to build the structure, and they employed some specialist builders. They made a male and female join, and that’s how it all lined up so perfectly and quickly. It was very, very impressive. Several stage builders we approached to build it said that it was too difficult, but Cliftons grabbed the ball and ran with it.”

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The 2024 AFL Grand Final Pre-Game Entertainment in Numbers

• 750+ wheels to get the stage and production on and off
• 300+ crew for the move on and off 200 dancers on field
• Staging and production delivered in 25 semi trailers
• 40+ tons of production

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The beautiful clad structure concealed quite a lot of tech and people underneath. “We had CO2 systems on the stage, with pop up CO2 vents that are like sprinkler heads,” continues Travis. “We brought them from America specifically. Because we had people under there, we had to install CO2 monitoring and alarms, and there was a paramedic standing by with oxygen for the dozen people that were under there. In addition to Tina Arena, there was a lift operator, Tina’s audio technician Danny Olesh, and half a dozen scaffies either side, ready to start breaking apart the stage because that had to happen from the inside. We had to put a comms aerial under there because the stage and the set pieces were interfering with RF. With Tina, we figured out that she would have to have been under there for an hour if we wanted to keep her a secret from the crowd, so I decided to load her in five minutes before the show. I just walked her up and lowered her down using the lift.”

The ‘futuristic cyborg vehicle’ Katy entered on was custom made in Melbourne to creative’s concept. “It was basically a four wheeled vehicle with driver and mechanic with a fibreglass shell,” relates Travis. “The driver was one of Katy’s people, which I was much more comfortable with, and the mechanic was in there just in case anything went wrong. There was a camera on the front so they could see, and they both had comms so we could tell them to go faster, slower and stop. All up, the vehicle section was much easier to do than I thought it was going to be.”

Which brings us to the part that wasn’t. “Those metallic inflatable discs were by far the hardest part of the show,” admits Travis. “When I first heard about them from creative, I thought, flippantly, ‘no problem, I’ll put them in a room.’ Our Production Manager, Simon Johnson, brought me back to Earth. ‘How big is this room, Trav?’ he asked. ‘Is it the size of Rod Laver Arena, cos if not, they won’t fit.’ I asked ‘What about a couple of semis?’ and Simon says ‘You’d need seven’. This is why Technical Producers like me need Production Managers like Simon, because they bring us back to reality.”

With 174 inflatables with a two metre diameter and nearly a metre in depth filled with compressed air, there was of course nowhere to store them if they were inflated, so they had to be inflated and deflated constantly through rehearsals. As is custom for the Grand Final, there were 90 ADF personnel on hand to assist, and that became part of their volunteer work.

The inflatable drama didn’t end there. The first time they went into the stadium, comms started going down. “Anytime they went anywhere near anyone, their radio comms went down,” sighs Travis. “So we had to bolster up the comms aerial system and rethink how we were transmitting and receiving. Seriously, they were the biggest challenge of the whole show!”

Less problematic was lighting. “The whole lighting spec was 144 Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M strobe/washes on dollies, controlled by grandMA3, and provided by PRG,” confirms Travis. “And we also got to address the MCG’s floodlights, making ‘K’, ‘P’, patterns, and chases; that’s the first time it’s ever been done. The technical infrastructure to do it has been there for a while, but it’s always been something that’s been closely protected by the MCG for lots of good reasons. This year, through a series of meetings and negotiations, we managed to get it through, and there’s been a hell of a reaction to it. People loved it!”

Other elements included the AR overlay for broadcast with new infrastructure from Champion Data, a local sport graphics specialist. The original digital content was supplied by Silent Partners out of the US, working with Mushroom and Katy’s team for two weeks. The spectacular finale’s pyros were dominated by high-flying coloured smoke (along with some traditional fireworks), provided by ShowFX.

“It was a challenging but successful production for Mushroom Group,” concludes Travis. “We’ve got the AFL, the media, and people in entertainment arguing about which of the last three of our Grand Final shows have been the best. We could not be in a happier position!”

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Credits

• Technical Producer – Travis Hogan
• Creative Producer – Tom Macdonald
• Project Director – Anna Toman
• Production Manager – Simon Johnson
• Local Choreographer – Yvette Lee
• Television Director – Gary Deans
• Production Coordinator – Ann Gibson
• Television Director – Gary Deans
• Audio Director – James Kilpatrick
• Playback – Ryan Fallis
• FOH Audio – Tim Milikan
• Pyrotechnics – Allan Spiegel, Rohan Thornton
• LED Content – Dave Hase
• Lighting Director – Chad Spencer
• Stage Managers – Hayden Vassallo, Stephen Moor, Chris Newman, Jeremy Nolan, Josh Green

Suppliers

• Producers – Mushroom Events and Mushroom Creative House
• Artist Creative Team – Silent House and the Squared Division
• Staging – Cliftons Audio – JPJ
• Video Servers – CT Lighting – PRG
• Additional staging and staffing – Prostage
• Stage Finishes – Linear LED
• Special Effects – ShowFX
• Content – Silent Partners & Hase Creative
• Labour – Gigpower/Australian Defence Force
• Communications – Articulate
• RF Management – PRM
• Automation – Showtech Australia
• Augmented Reality – Champion Data
• Custom Sets – A Blanck Canvas