Cirque Du Soleil
November 26, 2010 8 Comments
I never been in a circus before but have seen many of them on TV. I finally got the chance to see one when I am at the age of 48! (it is never too late to go the circus.) Cirque Du Soleil is ranked between the top circuses in the world and they were performing in my hometown Kuwait. So, I booked the tickets one month ago and told the kids that we are going to the circus to make them ready for the excitement. The ticket cost KD 20 ($65) and I thought it will worth it. I was told to go early since there are no assigned seating for the tickets, so I was there with the eager family 90 minutes early. To my surprise, half of the parking lot was full and people are rushing in.
The first shock I got when I discover that the circus will be performed in open are theater without big tents. I always associated the circus with tents but it did not mater since the weather was nice. The second shock I got when I found out that the stage was at least 200 meters (218 yards) away form the first available seat and the seat were arranged on a flat ground. So all I could see is the back of the hundreds of people in front of me! There was big screens on the side but I did not pay that much of money to watch the circus on large screens. The seats were not comfortable, but the kid had cheep cotton-candy and cold pop corn. And we left the show after 30 minuets because we could not enjoy the show. The circus performers were excellent, the music was live and the light and sound effect were amazing. But we could not see most of it. I wonder if most of the circuses are arranged the same way?
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With regret yes ,, most of the circuses are arranged the same way 😦 To my experience many shows or children plays are arranged the same messy way !!!!! In my point of view the reasons are :
1 The organizers think only in earning money .
2 If the same company organizes the same show in ( for example ) London the organization will perfect .
My advice to you Sami is to attend it in London 🙂
I did quick calculation by using the ticket price and number of people were in and the cost, to come to the conclusion that organizer made minimum net profit of KD 500,000 -750,000 ($1,773,000 – 2,660,000)
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uhmm doesnt make sense 500-750 ? thats negative ..how do you know the bringing down & operational costs ? i had got vip passes went there quite early , though surprised at the crowd turnout..i did enjoy the show..pity u didnt with the regular passes haaaa !
Hi Sheika,
Thank you for reading the blog and spending some time to participate in the discussion. The tickets were sold at an average price of KD 20. If you multiply that price by the number of attendance and sum up the number of shows you will reach a huge number. Deduct one third of the total as the cost of the circus and operating cost (if there is any!) you will reach something more than KD 500,000.
VIP seats were available to anybody without a pass. My friends reserved the seats but then abundant them to move to non-VIP seats so as they can see the large screens. You may have noticed that VIP seats can not see the big screens or enjoy the show.
While I was moving to my care I noticed many families leaving the circus. It was a big mess.
Thank you for the interactive comment.
Hi Sami,
I too attended the show, I agree that there was too much people there and getting inside was difficult. But I also think that you missed out the best part of the performance. I also thought a circus should have a tent, and animals and all that, but i think the new format of circuses dont have animals anymore and is more theme based. In fact the second part of the show by Cirque du Soliel was an amazing performance. It will take a many performances before Kuwait can meet international standards. But I think that if you came early you would have got good seating and a nice view of stage as well( I did- though I came in at 5.oo pm to ensure I got a good seat)
It looks like only companies like xcite brings us any entertaiment now, for sure they need to do a better job, but I am thankful to xcite that my kids got to watch a circus performance in kuwait, something they would never have got to do otherwise.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving this interesting comment. I agree with you , the circus is excellent and the performance worth the time and the money we paid for it, BUT…. my children could not see the stage, and they could see part of the big screens. It would not be fare to get the kids waiting for 2 hours just to get a decent view of the stage. For that amount of money we should have got a reserved place that we could enjoy the show. (Have you seen the quo on toilets?) The kids got board and wanted to leave. Next day I took them to the movies and they had good time there.
Salam Sami, absolutely not! Cirque du Soleil has a permanent show in Dubai and Vegas and many other countries. None of the I have attended were held in an open air setting and as badly managed as the one in entertainment city, It was a disaster of an event, overcrowded badly managed with poor logistics, a media stunt gone bad.