How has the site at Banban evolved since the early days of Soundstorm?
Banban has evolved significantly from the early editions of Soundstorm. In the beginning, it was primarily activated as a large-scale festival site, with much of the infrastructure being built around the immediate needs of each edition.
Over time, MDLBEAST has approached Banban more strategically. The site has increasingly become a long-term entertainment platform rather than a temporary event location. We have invested in understanding the site’s operational requirements, audience flows, production needs, supplier access, artist logistics, safety protocols, and guest experience.
Each edition has allowed us to learn, improve, and build more resilience into the site. Today, Banban is not only associated with Soundstorm; it is becoming an adaptable asset that can support different event formats, audience sizes, and production ambitions.
How does the infrastructure lend itself to being flexible enough to host events of various sizes and formats?
The strength of Banban is its scale and flexibility. The site can be configured in multiple ways depending on the event format, whether that is a major multi-stage festival, a more focussed cultural event, a concert-led experience, or a smaller activation.
A lot of the planning has been around modularity. That means thinking carefully about zones, access routes, back-of-house areas, artist compounds, production corridors, crowd movement, parking, security layers, F&B, and guest services in a way that can expand or contract depending on the event.
For a large festival like Soundstorm, the site needs to support multiple stages, very high footfall, extensive production requirements, and a broad range of guest experiences.
For a smaller event, the same site can be activated in a more focussed way, using selected zones and infrastructure while maintaining strong operational standards.
That flexibility is important because the future of live entertainment is not one-size-fits-all. Different audiences, formats, and creative concepts require different site configurations.
What would the main differences be between operating the site for an incoming production and activating it during an in-house event such as A Thousand and One or Soundstorm?
The biggest difference is the role MDLBEAST plays. For an in-house event such as Soundstorm or A Thousand and One, MDLBEAST is involved across the full value chain. That includes the creative concept, commercial model, programming, ticketing, marketing, guest experience, production, operations, partnerships, and delivery. We are not only operating the site, but we are building the entire event experience.
For an incoming production, the role is more focussed on enabling the event to happen successfully at Banban. In that case, MDLBEAST acts more as a site operator, infrastructure partner, and local delivery enabler. The incoming promoter or production brings its own creative and commercial objectives, while we support them with the site, local knowledge, operational framework, supplier ecosystem, compliance, and guest-flow planning.
In both cases, the objective is the same – to deliver a safe, world-class, and commercially viable event – but the level of creative and commercial ownership differs.
What eco-friendly initiatives is MDLBEAST pursuing at its Banban site?
Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important part of how we think about Banban. For a site of this scale, the biggest opportunities are in long-term planning, asset reuse, waste management, energy efficiency, and reducing the need to rebuild the same infrastructure from scratch every year.
One of the key directions is moving from a purely temporary-event mindset to a more reusable infrastructure model. That means looking at what can be retained, repurposed, or improved between events, rather than repeatedly building and dismantling everything.
We are also looking at practical initiatives such as better waste segregation, more responsible material choices, more efficient power planning, improved water management, and reducing unnecessary single-use materials where possible.
For us, sustainability is not only about isolated initiatives. It is about embedding better decisions into the way the site is planned, built, operated, and improved over time.
What’s the long-term vision for the evolution of the Banban site?
The long-term vision is for Banban to become one of the region’s most important live entertainment platforms. Soundstorm proved that Saudi Arabia can host large-scale music experiences at a global standard. The next phase is about turning that success into a more permanent and versatile infrastructure base that can support different types of events, formats, partners, and audiences.
We see Banban as a site that can continue to serve flagship MDLBEAST events, while also creating opportunities for other productions, cultural experiences, international partnerships, and new event concepts.
The ambition is not only to build a better festival site. It is to contribute to a wider entertainment ecosystem; one that develops local talent, attracts international expertise, supports suppliers, creates jobs, and strengthens Saudi Arabia’s position as a major destination for live entertainment.
We saw that MDLBEAST recently held an event aiming at connecting with new suppliers. What is the company’s strategy when it comes to selecting which suppliers you’ll be working with moving forward?
Our supplier strategy is focussed on building a strong, reliable, and scalable ecosystem around live entertainment. As the industry grows, we need partners who can deliver to international standards while also understanding the local market. The selection process is not only about price. It is about capability, safety, reliability, technical quality, scalability, creativity, compliance, and the ability to work collaboratively under complex event conditions.
We are also looking for suppliers who want to grow with the industry. Live entertainment in Saudi Arabia is moving quickly, and we need partners who can invest in their teams, improve their systems, bring new ideas, and consistently raise the standard.
The supplier engagement event was part of that wider approach. It was about opening the conversation, identifying new capabilities, and making sure more companies understand the opportunities available within the live events sector.
How much of a focus is there on building the local supplier ecosystem?
It is a major focus for MDLBEAST. From the beginning, one of MDLBEAST’s roles has been to help build the industry, not only to deliver events. That means creating opportunities for local suppliers, freelancers, technicians, creatives, operators, and service providers to participate in increasingly complex productions.
International expertise remains important – especially in specialised areas – but the long-term objective is to strengthen local capability. The more we can develop Saudi-based suppliers, the more sustainable and competitive the industry becomes.
This is important commercially, operationally, and strategically. A stronger local supplier base means better responsiveness, more knowledge transfer, greater cost efficiency over time, and more career pathways for Saudi talent.
For MDLBEAST, building the supplier ecosystem is part of building the future of the entertainment industry in the Kingdom.
Photos: MDLBEAST
