Production crews in western Wisconsin.Across the St. Croix is barely out of town.

AHLC supplies stagehands and event production labor across western Wisconsin — Hudson, Somerset, River Falls, New Richmond, Menomonie, Eau Claire, and La Crosse.

This is the closest thing we have to a second home market. Hudson is thirty-five minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Somerset is under an hour. Eau Claire is ninety minutes. For a lot of the St. Croix Valley, a Twin Cities crew isn't an out-of-market call at all — it's the same drive our hands make to get to a load in at Xcel Energy Center.

On union houses

Worth saying plainly, because it comes up in this market. IATSE Local 13's jurisdiction reaches Eau Claire and La Crosse, and some rooms here are union calls.

AHLC is non-union production labor. We work alongside union and venue staff wherever they're called — we don't work around them. Many of our hands have spent years on union calls and know exactly how to come into a house clean, take direction from the house head, and not create a problem on somebody else's floor.

Rooms and grounds in this market

These are the buildings this market's production calendar runs through. We're not claiming a résumé in every one — we're telling you which rooms a call here means. If your show is in one of them, ask and we'll tell you straight what we can put in it.

• Somerset Amphitheater — the largest outdoor amphitheater and camping venue in the area — multi-day builds, festival strikes, stage and barricade
• Chippewa Valley festival grounds — Cadott and Eau Claire — Country Jam, Rock Fest, Country Fest, Blue Ox and the summer run
• Pablo Center at the Confluence — Eau Claire — performing-arts house, theater calls, scenic handling
• State Theatre — Eau Claire — 1,100-seat downtown room, vertical load ins, tight-dock touring
• Sonnentag Center — Eau Claire — arena-scale events, concerts, and convention builds
• La Crosse Center — arena and convention complex — arena tours, trade shows, general sessions
• Weber Center for the Performing Arts — La Crosse — theater and seated-concert calls
• UW campuses — Eau Claire, River Falls, La Crosse, Stout — campus concerts, commencements, speaker events

What we crew here

• Arena and amphitheater tour labor — load in, show call, load out, rigging support, spot ops
• Casino showroom calls — fast one-nighters, small footprints, tight turnarounds
• Festival and fair crews — grandstand builds, multi-day runs, overnight strikes
• Audio, lighting, and video — speaker hangs, truss builds, LED wall, dimmer world
• Stage and carpentry — decking, risers, scenic, changeovers
• Theater and performing-arts calls — deck, scenic, changeovers
• Convention and corporate A/V — general sessions, galas, breakouts, trade shows
• Forklift and dock crew — truck flips, long pushes, freight

Lead time and travel

The St. Croix Valley — Hudson, Somerset, River Falls, New Richmond — is close enough that we treat it near-metro. Same-day calls are normal, and short-notice is often workable. Eau Claire, Menomonie, and Cadott are comfortable same-day drives. La Crosse at two and a half hours is same-day for most call times and an overnight for early ones.

Travel is quoted up front. On the near side of the river it's usually a rounding error; on a La Crosse or multi-day festival call it's a real line item and we'll show it to you before you approve anything.

Booking a western Wisconsin crew

Tell us the venue or the grounds, the dates, whether it's a build-and-strike or a single show call, and roughly how many hands. Festival work especially — send us the whole run, not one day. We respond within 24 hours.

Also working the region? See the full service area, or the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota pages.

Book a crew

Tell us the gig. We'll come back to you — usually within 24 hours, or the next business day. Prefer to talk? Call (651) 529-0748.