ROBBIE WILLIAMS - BRITPOP TOUR 2025

The King of Entertainment or a quarter of a century of live productions synonymous with theatrics, high emotions and technical creativity. When Robbie Williams set out to celebrate this phenomenal career with the 2025 – Britpop Tour, the brief was clear: create a show as bold, charismatic and unforgettable as the man himself. Packed stadiums, high expectations and a legacy of hits meant that every detail of the production had to deliver spectacle and technical perfection without losing the raw energy of live performance.

Stufish signed for the next level set design for this tour, featuring a golden futuristic stage with Williams opening his show while appearing on a rocket platform ready to fly.

For WICREATIONS, this project has been an opportunity to push creative and technical boundaries once again. From golden stage structures and decks, an upstage screen-tracking package and dynamic scenic automation to a jaw-dropping aerial performance act and perfectly synchronized wagon motion: our solutions helped bring Robbie’s vision - and his iconic Britpop flair- to life on stage, night after night.

GOLDEN STAGE STRUCTURES

Straight from our warehouses in Heist-Op-Den-Berg Belgium: the catwalk structure and B stage, the last part made flexibly adaptable to stage level as the RW production is not touring with an own stage meaning different house stages from different suppliers so often different heights and stage levels.

The entire floor is covered with our own black coated WI decks with the outer edges painted gold to mirror the golden rocket, also WI fabricated. Gold also for the catwalk to match the glamorous styling of the set and for the custom stairs for the famous RW fan interaction. Add the steps to bridge the catwalk-to-main stage height difference, and you get quite a good view on our staging input.

Black coated WI decks with the outer edges painted gold for a glamorous look & feel.

LASER GUIDED WAGONS

Usually our remote controlled wagons are integrated for permanent installations in theatres and operas or used for motion effects for all kinds of shows all over the world. But now we had the opportunity to also successfully integrate them in the RW stage. 8 wagons have been brought in formation, 6 of them band risers with video screens that move automatically and 2 for Robbie and the dancers. The ‘cube’, the bigger one (3m by 3m) moves forward from behind the upstage video screens and an extra, completely wirelessly controlled wagon is used for Robbie to emerge on several times throughout the show.

Supplying our own skin decks to cover the many differently sized house stages, brought key advantages. First the smooth surface ensured the WI wagons to glide effortlessly which is necessary for a seamless performance. Second, the wagon reflector markers—critical for precise positioning—could be installed at always the same fixed spots. No extra measuring and adjustments meant a swift set up and guaranteed flawless motion.

Tourable WI wagon technology opens up exciting new scopes for stage and show design.

AERIAL TECHNOLOGY

At the top of the show, when a WI wagon slides the artist to the front of the stage, Robbie disembarks the platform, performs the song Rocket and climbs the large, golden WI built and automated rocket structure which is then lifted above the stage.

The sequence continues as Robbie launches himself from the rocket, an EN 17206 compliant flying act also WI delivered. The performer winch is on a small track - so when Robbie jumps off and ‘flies’, he tracks forward a little bit so he can land without being too near the rocket.

SCENIC IN MOTION

The golden rocket structure is designed with a clamshell body that opens on powered hinges. On the Angels cue, the rocket’s 2 body shells swing outward and feather leaves fan out from each shell transforming the rocket’s fuselage into a central wing spine and the opened shells into magnificent angel wings that gently “breathe” — rising and lowering in harmony with the song’s dynamics.

CHALLENGE

Asked what the biggest challenge has been for his team, team lead Raf Peeters responds: “Relatively short lead times, but also, we have used the WI Wagons for several permanent, long-running shows and arena shows, but using them on a touring production that’s going from outdoor stadium shows to arenas and having to build the wagons on a daily basis is somewhat new for us. It’s exciting though, because it creates a lot of opportunities for future tours, both for us and for designers.” Quoted from an interview by Plasa LSi

CREDITS

A big shoutout to all our very talented production partners and friends, creatives, techies, operational folks, crew and carpenters and of course to all our dedicated WI people who gave their very best for weeks to turn this stage setting into an unforgettable experience for the hundreds of thousands of RW fans.

WITEAM

Raf Peeters - Team Lead
Cas Verbruggen - Project manager
Lesly Van Rompaey - WIMOTION Integration Lead
Wessel Fortuin – Head of Engineering
Crew Chief - Pieterjan Nouwynck aka PJ
Operators and onsite crew -
Fabrication & Warehouse Teams

PRODUCTION PARTNERS

Stufish Studio – Rick Lipson and Faz Barber - Stage Design
John M Lafferty - Production Manager
Kim Gavin - Creative Director
Glen Johnson - Lighting Director
Paul Normandale - Lighting Designer
@ashleywallen @lukehallsstudio @erlasersandsfx and many others.