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More than 200,000 visitors at the NATO Days
Last year marked exactly 100 years since the Republic of Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918, and this did not go unnoticed. One of the many festivities that took place were the NATO Days in Ostrava in September. Ostrava, with over 296,000 inhabitants, is the third-largest city in the Czech Republic.
Jagello 2000, the National Association for the Promotion of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and International Security, was tasked with organising this huge event. The NATO Days provide a good overview of all the resources that the Czech Republic and its allies and partners use to protect our safety and security. The free-entry weekend show attracted around 220,000 visitors. Part of the event programme included an international parade of military, police and rescue units.
Boels Rental was the leading partner for the complete operational process. Jakub Matejov, Manager of Operations for Boels in the Czech Republic, tells us that the partnership between Jagello and the international rental company has a long-term character. “A contract has already been signed for the coming three years, with a guarantee of a dozen major events being held in that period.”
Boels supplied seven kilometres of fencing, several forklift trucks and over a hundred toilet units. “We built up the event site together with the organisation, which definitely isn’t common practice in this region. Generally, we only supply the equipment and the customer takes care of the rest.”
On this occasion, Boels wasn’t just the supplier of fencing and sanitation units, but also helped with the installation and relocation. “Seeing as the fences needed to change location several times a day, this was no easy job. We were also involved with the preparation from the beginning, which helped make the processes on site run so smoothly. Above all, our staff considered it a tremendous honour to be able to work on the project, so it wasn’t hard at all to find enough volunteers for the job.”