DRAKE CONCERT TOUR
STAGE DESIGN
Drake concert tour
On August 12, 2018, rapper Drake and hip-hop trio Migos kicked off their North American concert tour, “Aubrey & The Three Amigos.” Supporting Drake’s new “Scorpion”, the album had been played more than a billion times in the week after its release.
The visual stage design was developed by our team at the invitation of American director Willo Perron, who is known for his work with Kanye West, Rihanna, Jay Z, The Weeknd, and others.
Drake’s spring 2019 European concert tour called “Assassination Vacation” used the same stage design.
Concept
Our goal was to create a unique visual experience and to elevate design standards across the industry. The stage was located in the center of the arena and its surface was completely covered with a LED screen mounted on the floor and on its sides, which created a 3D surface to reproduce 3D illusions. The show also utilized drones, a flying Ferrari, dancers, pyrotechnics and a light show.
Inspired by the layout of a basketball court, Perron positioned the stage so that the audience could watch from all four sides. “This is the best experience for the fans regardless of their location,” said Perron in an interview with Dezeen.
Our main task was to create a visual design for Drake’s tracks using all the sorts of 3D visuals. We worked on the project for three months, creating a huge, stage-sized scorpion, multi-colored palm trees, an iPhone X home screen, the performer’s holographic projection, a basketball court, and photorealistic volumetric lava to share the stage with Drake.
Visual effects
The show used a lot of visual effects. Among them were lasers, CO2 effects, a flying Ferrari, and 200 flying drones that created volumetric figures above the artist.
The project attracted the best industry professionals: Jessie Blevins was engaged in light design; stage production was performed by Tait Towers; and drones were integrated by Verity.
“The show used BlackTrax technology, which allowed real-time tracking of the artist's movement around the stage, and the content responded to his movements. When Drake walked on the ice, it broke underneath him.”
Stage versions
The stage was redesigned several times, and each iteration necessitated new visual solutions.
According to the Art Director of the studio Philat Bonum, the most difficult part of the work was waiting for the render and a large number of corrections: “Something was done, something was changed, something was redesigned, something was returned. In the end, we put together a presentation with all of our content. About 100 unused scenes turned out, and some had different animations. ”
Press
The first leg of the tour took place in 54 cities across the USA and Canada. We received many excellent reviews about the visual design of the show from around the world. High Snobiety, The Hollywood Reporter, Pin-Up, Esquire, GQ, Afisha, and many others covered the tour and our design.
World-renowned artists such as Kanye West and Adele noted that it was one of the best shows they had ever seen.
According to Pollstar edition, 678,410 tickets were sold in North America, for a total profit of $79 million — making it one of the most profitable rap tours in American history. The rapper continued the same show on a 22-city European tour in 2019, this time without Migos and under the name “Assassination Vacation.”
The project was shortlisted for a Cannes Lion for Entertainment for Music — Music Live Event at the 2019 Cannes Festival.
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