Rock-it Global has all your logistics needs covered

Shakespeare

Rock-it Global offers comprehensive freight and logistics services encompassing all aspects of a touring production’s logistics needs

Right now, across the world, there are countless ships, trucks and planes making their way across oceans, thundering along motorways or soaring through the skies. They’re stuffed full of sets and costumes, lights and speakers, instruments and props and everything else that’s needed to put on a spectacular live show.

If the kit doesn’t arrive, the show doesn’t happen. That’s where Rock-it Global comes in. For almost half a century, Rock-it Global has been the leading provider of logistics for live events across the world. As well as its extensive work in live music and sport, it offers a discreet, comprehensive service encompassing all aspects of a touring theatrical production’s logistics needs, to ensure that the curtain will always go up on time.

‘Rock-it has a network of employees across the world who are experts in local customs’

Rock-it Global’s Tom Golubovic has worked in mission-critical logistics for almost two decades, organising the cargo for hundreds of complex events across the world. After starting out in live music, chartering flights to move stadium and arena tours between venues on a nightly basis, he and his team have become an increasingly vital presence in theatre touring, too. In 17 years he has never missed a show. "I want to keep that record," he says.

So how does it work? How does a theatre set built in London end up on a stage in Sydney? Golubovic explains: "It starts with the technical director saying: ‘Tom, the set will be built by the end of July, it’ll fit into ten 40ft containers and the show opens in Sydney at the end of September.’ Then I study the schedules of ocean lines and plot the best route."

When the cargo is loaded on the ships, Golubovic keeps a constant eye on it so that he can be ready if anything goes wrong. "London to Sydney is 50 days at sea. The containers have to be loaded seven days prior to departure, and we’ll want them to arrive 10 to 14 days before the show goes up. On the journey there will be multiple ports where the cargo has to be unloaded and reloaded, due to local laws. So that’s maybe two months where I’m monitoring cargo."

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As Golubovic notes, when it comes to ocean freight there’s plenty that can go wrong. "Ships have to pass through canals. There’s a drought in the Panama Canal right now, which can add time, and everyone remembers what happened in the Suez Canal in 2022." But Rock-it Global builds resilience into every job. If there’s any sign of delay, Golubovic has contingencies in place to mitigate it.

It helps that the company has a network of employees across the world who are experts in local customs. "We send a lot of kits to Tokyo, for example, where I have a brilliant colleague whom I’ve worked with for about seven years and have never met, but I know I can rely on him for local expertise."

Between them, these experts can have delayed freight on different ships or chartered flights within hours. "It’s the same work ethic and approach in Sydney, Melbourne and Tokyo. Everybody’s on the same page with what needs to happen."

‘Transporting theatre is so different from live music’ – Rock-it’s Tom Golubovic

When it comes to theatre, cargo can often be highly specialised, but Rock-it Global’s impeccable track record means that every single item – no matter how big, small, oddly shaped or seemingly insignificant – makes it safely to the venue.

"Transporting theatre is so different from live music. You’ll have all these strangely shaped pieces of wood, which look like they have no value. When it’s being loaded you think: ‘Is this really going to go on a stage and sell tickets?’ Then when you get to the venue and it’s all put together you think: ‘Wow, that’s amazing’," he says.

An important part of Rock-it Global’s approach is the way it offers a bespoke service to each of its clients, which often means that Golubovic and his team go the extra mile. He recalls a recent production of a critically acclaimed play that was touring to Hamburg. The costumes were being made in the UK and then sent to Germany for fittings, but German customs required every single piece of fabric – more than 600 in total – to be assigned an individual customs code. "I didn’t want to put my client through that, so I did it myself. Taking it off their plate, it’s just that extra touch."

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is one of the many productions that Rock-it Global has worked with

Golubovic always makes clear to his clients that he is available 24/7 because logistics can go wrong at any time of day or night: shipping containers don’t take weekends off from being at sea. "They know that if they call me up on a Sunday at 10pm I’ll step away from whatever I’m doing and take the call. The other day a music client had an emergency where they needed equipment moved from Athens to Finland on very short notice. Within five minutes of them sending the email I had responded and we were on a call organising the logistics."

‘Nothing is fingers crossed, everything is strategically planned’ – Rock-it’s Tom Golubovic

He has recently been involved in the transfer of a hit musical to Broadway. The main transfer involved dozens of huge shipping containers, but when the show was in place, Golubovic received a call from the technical director saying that a critical set piece – a car – needed three new tyres. "I had to pick them up in London on Monday and they needed them to be at the theatre in New York on Wednesday." Did those tyres make it? "Of course they did."

Even when the cargo arrives at the venue, the job isn’t quite done. "Some of these theatres have very narrow alleys for loading. We make sure there are no surprises when 15 trucks arrive to unload. At a venue in Singapore we hired special low trucks in order to meet the height restrictions of getting the freight into the theatre."

For Golubovic, the job only ends "once we know that the containers are outside the theatre being offloaded by the theatre crew. That’s when the job is done".

"Nothing is fingers crossed, everything is strategically planned," he says. It might be several tonnes of equipment, or it might be three tyres. No matter how big or small, no matter the challenges, Rock-it Global is there to ensure that the show can always go on.

For more informationabout Rock-it Global, click here