Congo Blue puts the Fairy on the Christmas Tree

Congo Blue Design is used to launching retail promotions in shopping centres, but stunt co-ordination is something of a new direction.

The brief was to put celebrity Big Bother star Chantelle Houghton atop a giant tree for a Christmas promotion at Lakeside Shopping Centre, 54ft in the air.

Ben Teale at Congo Blue Design was approached by Clarion Communications on behalf of Lakeside.

"I was asked if this was possible a couple of weeks ago and the job was confirmed just a week before. Our role was to coordinate the stunt, including the crane hire, providing the rigging equipment and the all important safety management."

Congo Blue carried out the Risk Assessment, even making provision for rescue in the event of crane failure.  

"This was a carefully planned event with critical timings" Ben noted, "We fully briefed Chantelle, talking her through the whole process, fitted her harness and then controlled the crane driver as the hoist began."

The stunt, which took place at 3.30pm amongst the shoppers, launched Lakeside's new festive Grotto Lotto promotion, which offers Christmas shoppers a chance to win £1,000 daily for the next 12 days to spend at Lakeside.

Chantelle put on an extremely brave face for the stunt as she beamed for the cameras.  Behind the scenes she was understandably scared at the prospect of being hoisted high above the shopping centre. She later admitted on her Twitter page that she had been quite terrified.  She wrote: 'Most craziest day yesterday being put on the top of Lakeside's christmas tree! I was petrified! 

As a stunt, the job went off without a hitch and in complete safety.  As a promotion, Lakeside were delighted with the outcome, as it received considerable coverage in the national press.

Read more: Lakeside Christmas Tree Fairy (Daily Mail)