UnderBELLY - the all-new Edinburgh venue

In 2006, Underbelly will be bringing an all-new venue experience to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Underbelly is a large temporary structure holding a 322-seat venue, with a large stage and fully equipped lighting and sound rig, in the shape of an upside-down purple cow!

UnderBELLY is a new flexible temporary structure that can be used for a variety of events and purposes. The word “tent” does not do it justice as it can be anything from a plain white/silver covered flat space, to a large upside-down purple cow fully-equipped for plays, concerts, comedy shows, corporate events, product demos, music festivals and other events. UnderBELLY will be grazing in Bristo Square, to be renamed The Pasture, where you will also find a bar, cafe and outdoor seating.

Underbelly is constructed from Prolyte truss. The complete structure is based on two additional roof systems; 6 ST ground support towers are combined with a curved roof of S52SV truss. The dimensions of the complete structure are a surface area of 24 x 12 metres combined with a clearance of 8 metres.
A total load bearing capacity of 9000 kg is available for the technical equipment, such as sound and lighting, needed for the shows, which will be staged in Udderbelly.

For this project, Prolyte has worked in close cooperation with Scena Projects LTD, who are responsible for the complete steel basis construction and Architen Landerell, who has supplied the purple canopy, which covers the complete structure. David Watson is appointed as project coordinator.

Prolyte is responsible for the project overview and all static calculations, but for a project like this good cooperation between all parties is vital. As Ivo Mulder, Prolyte responsible engineer for the Udderbelly project states: “This is a complex structure in which every element is of great importance. It would not be possible to build a structure like this without the involvement of all parties concerned. Cooperation on this scale adds an extra dimension to the project and it worked out wonderfully once we set up the whole system, which really went remarkably smooth.”

For more information please go to:
http://www.underbelly.co.uk/index.php