IT ALL STARTED YESTERDAY WITH THE SET-UP OF
THE GRAND CHAPITEAU AND THE CIRQUE DU SOLEIL VILLAGE
Premieres Wednesday, September 7 for a limited engagement
under the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau at Stampede Park
The first visible sign of the return of Cirque du Soleil and its live production OVO in Calgary is the raising of its trademark blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau and the Cirque du Soleil village. The event took place yesterday afternoon at Stampede Park where a team of 60-plus men and women hoisted more than 100 steel poles from the ground up.
A few technical facts about the Grand Chapiteau and the Cirque du Soleil Village:
- The Grand Chapiteau stands 20 meters high and is 50 meters in diameter;
- 550 pegs are required to hold the Grand Chapiteau firmly to the 1,463 square meters of asphalt and the 4 masts stand at 24 meters tall each;
- The Grand Chapiteau can accommodate more than 2,600 people;
- The entire site set-up includes installation of entrance, hospitality and rehearsal tents, box office, administrative offices and kitchen;
- Just like a village, the site is completely self-sufficient for electrical power and relies only on a local water supply and telecommunication facilities to support its infrastructure;
- The Grand Chapiteau, the Tapis Rouge and Artistic tents are all climate controlled with air conditioning in warm seasons or heating for colder seasons;
- OVO travels via 61 trailers carrying more than 1,709,000 pounds of equipment for the tour.
Box office
As part of the Cirque du Soleil village, a box office will be set up at the front of the Grand Chapiteau. As of Tuesday, September 6, 2011, between 17h30 and 20h30, tickets for OVO may be purchased in person.
Regular box office hours starts 2 hours prior to show time and runs 30 minutes after the beginning of the show. It is closed on Mondays.
Tickets are available through www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo.
Performance schedule: Tuesdays through Thursdays at 20h00; Fridays and Saturdays at 16h00 and 20h00; Sundays at 13h00 and 17h00; and dark on Mondays.
Sponsors
Cirque du Soleil gratefully acknowledges Desjardins®, Presenting Sponsor of the Canadian Tour of OVO as well as Infiniti, CGI, XEROX and Rogers as the Official Sponsors.
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For information and photo about Cirque du Soleil and OVO, please visit http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/pressroom/default.htm
Media contact: Blair Cosgrove | The Message Parlour
Cell: 403-889-4293 | Email: blairc@themessageparlour.com