World’s Largest Disco Ball
Breaking a world record for the largest disco ball ever at Bestival
When Disco legend Nile Rodgers was booked to headline the 2014 Bestival on the Isle of Wight in the UK he laid down the gauntlet, challenging the festival organisers to set a new world record for the world’s largest disco ball to accompany his exclusive Desert Island Disco set.
Bestival commissioned us to respond and beat the incumbent record of 9.98 metres diameter. Always up for the challenge and technical complexity, we designed and delivered a disco ball that was as high as a three-storey house, covered with a kilometre’s worth of tiles and filled with 350 cubic meters of air. We craned the giant orb into place, waited for darkness and then flicked on our giant light array. The giant disco ball rotated, showering silver light across every point on the Festival site.
As high as a three storey house, our ball was covered a kilometre’s worth of tiles. We still hold the Guinness World Record, topping out at 10.33 metres diameter.
— Client
Bestival
— Location
Isle of Wight, UK
The Outcome
Bringing all of our record breaking skills to the fore NEWSUBSTANCE designed and delivered a Disco Ball that helped Bestival set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORD topping the tape at 10.33metres.
A 10.33m, PVC ball was inflated and then socked in industrial strength mesh netting, onto which 2,500 styrene mirror tiles were painstakingly attached using over 11,000 zip ties. A bespoke pressure management system was created to ensure structural integrity throughout its time on site.
Arriving on site, this beast of a ball was inflated, cleaned up and primed for its headline appearance. On cue on Sunday night our world’s largest disco ball was lifted using a crane and rotated using 6 costumed wranglers. Once we had gained sufficient speed the wranglers stood down allowing the ball four full, unassisted rotations that combined with the already officially confirmed size delivered a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD!
