LIVE MUSIC WITHIN A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
Client:
MDLBeast
Balad Beast is a two-day music festival delivered by MDLBeast within the historic district of Al Balad in Jeddah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The event features four stages integrated throughout the live urban environment, combining contemporary music programming with the character and architecture of the historic town.
Delivered within an active city environment, the festival operates alongside residents, businesses, public spaces and ongoing tourism activity. The surrounding streets, courtyards and heritage buildings form part of the wider audience experience, requiring careful coordination between event infrastructure, public access and the preservation of the historic setting.
Balad Beast brings large-scale live entertainment into a culturally significant and operationally sensitive environment, where every aspect of delivery must respond to the constraints and requirements of a protected heritage site.
Number of attendees
25,000
at
Balad Beast
Services
provided
Overlay & Site Management
- Infrastructure scheduling & procurement
- On-site supplier & logistics management
- Provision of experts to manage waste and reyccling, power, plumbing and plant
Site Design
- Budget & efficiency tracking
our role
Years worked: 2022-2026
Special Projects acted as the lead site management and infrastructure coordination team on behalf of MDLBeast across multiple editions of Balad Beast, overseeing the planning, procurement and operational delivery of temporary event infrastructure within the constraints of a live UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Working closely with the Ministry of Culture, health and safety teams, local authorities and appointed contractors, we ensured all activity remained compliant with heritage regulations, operational restrictions and site specific safety requirements throughout the build, live event and dismantle phases.
Our role included defining infrastructure requirements across the festival footprint, managing procurement, coordinating contractors and overseeing the installation and removal of temporary infrastructure across all stages and support areas. This included management of logistics, access routes, plant movement, utilities coordination and operational site activity within the narrow streets and restricted access conditions of Al Balad.
Special Projects also led daily coordination across stakeholders to maintain programme alignment, respond to live site conditions and ensure works progressed efficiently within restricted working hours and curfews. Throughout delivery, we worked to balance the operational requirements of a large scale live event with the protection and preservation of the surrounding historic environment.
