It was Daniel Popper who introduced Airspace to the endless possibilities of inflatable staging with this Tripolee stage. This was our very first inflatable sculpture, and it allowed us to take ordinary inflatables to an extraordinary level. We printed each element with original art to achieve the realistic effect. It is remarkable to realise that each head used 500 metres of fabric, while the internal structure required to sculpt the fine features of each face used 300 metres of fabric. The animal sculptures were mounted onto 5-metre-high platforms to function as the ‘spirit animals’ for each of the different festival camps. They were set high above the forest floor for maximum impact.

Billboard Magazine voted our stage as the best at the 2017 Electric Forest Festival in the USA. This is what they had to say: ‘Honestly, of all the stages erected at the Electric Forest Festival, Tripolee and the Hangar were definitely the coolest. Tripolee [created by Airspace] looked like one had stumbled upon some ancient ruins. The massive idols flanking each side were silent deities blessing the dancers below.’

• 8 x 6-metre-tall inflatable animal sculptures and 2 x 12-metre-tall by 7-metre-wide Tripolee Heads for the stage set

• In collaboration with Daniel Popper of Pop Productions