For the first time in the city’s history, Cirque du Soleil’s newest show Echo will be presented under the big top at Stampede Park.

When the show opens at the end of August, it will have been due to the cumulative effort of hundreds of Cirque staff—and their families—to put on a truly international-level show.

On Aug. 23, Cirque du Soleil staff, along with locally hired support workers and a pair of special guests, raised the side walls on the biggest tent in the city, marking the countdown to the opening of Echo.

Sylvain Guimond, senior tour director for Cirque du Soleil and company manager for Echo, said that despite the technological change that has made it easier and faster to move the 72 trailer trucks needed for the show, the act of raising the big top has remained the same for the past 41 years of Cirque.

“So 41 years ago, we raised the roof of the tent exactly the same way. So that’s my favourite bit,” he said.

“As soon as we complete the setup in the city, everybody that works behind the scene, they start planning for the next one. The planning, we have it down to science.”

While audiences will see the full creativity of the circus company on display, it’s the literal military-level precision behind the scenes that drives the ability for Cirque du Soleil to tour across North and South America with the production.

In Calgary, the company has 122 employees and 38 family members of those employees travelling with the show.

From world-class chefs feeding the show’s performers, to more than 300 meals a day provided to staff, logistics is at the heart of Echo—even if audiences don’t see it centre stage.

“Ninety-nine per cent is planned exactly the way it’s supposed to happen. Now, every time we move from one city to another, or a country to another, there’s some outside force that challenges us, right? But we’ve been trained to handle these things. So, there’s nothing really that you can throw our way that we won’t be able to manage,” said Guimond.

He said that every travelling company was like its own little family away from Cirque du Soleil’s headquarters in Montreal.

“These are the people that we travel with. These are the people that we work with. There’s, I think, 23 different languages that are spoken on this tour. So, there’s people from everywhere. We have our little United Nations, and everything runs very smoothly,” said Guimond.

Get an experience like nowhere else, here in Calgary for Echo

Although audiences flock to worldwide destinations like Las Vegas to see Cirque du Soleil residencies, he said that seeing a show under the big top was a magical experience unmatched.

“The shows in Las Vegas, they are in the permanent theatre and they’ve been running for years and years and years. So, they don’t get the excitement of the premiere, right? So we set all this up, but then at some point we’re going to have a premiere,” said Guimond.

“So when we’re done building everything, and then when we welcome people on site, it’s a special excitement that people in Vegas, they don’t have.”

So magical is that experience of seeing people experiencing Cirque du Soleil for the first time, even though Guimond has been a part of Cirque du Soleil for decades, he likes to stand outside in the crowds during the first night to hear their reactions to entering the show.

That journey of exploration is echoed in the show itself, which tells the story of a young woman meeting new people and finding out how experiences tend to echo through their lives.

“The main part is that they realize on their journey that every action that we take has a ripple effect on everything else that we do, right? So, they become conscious of what they’re doing, because every time they do something, there’s a ripple effect, and they can see it,” said Guimond.

“When we started to work on the show, this is the framework that we had for Echo. But then you people would come out sometimes and they would go like, ‘Oh no, I thought they were somewhere else, right?’ Everybody goes on their own journey.”

Emma Stevens, Director of Communications and External Relations for the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, said that she hoped people would make that journey to the Culture and Entertainment District to see Echo.

“Having Cirque du Soleil in the Culture and Entertainment District is just so much fun, and it’s exactly what the district is built for. Sometimes it’s hockey games, and sometimes it’s conventions, and sometimes it’s an internationally-renowned traveling circus,” she said.

“It’s just the coolest thing that we get to have all of that right here in Calgary, and we’re so happy to have them.”

Something special about getting to help put up the show

Stevens, along with Village Brewing director of marketing, Jackson Stewart, were the special guests asked to help put up the big top.

“I’m not sure I was much of a help with the pushing, but I sure was happy to be part of it. It’s honestly amazing seeing how this team works, how dialed in they are on the logistics. I mean, they travel the show around from city to city. They do this every day, but for someone like me, I get to do this once every couple of years, and it’s just so special to be part of,” said Stevens.

“It just makes it that much more meaningful to get to see the show in a couple of weeks, to know that I had a very, very small, very, very small hand in putting that big top up.”

For visitors heading to the show, Stevens said that there would still be road closures around Stampede Park as construction on Scotia Place continues.

“As always, check the C+E access map to plan your trip into the district, taking 17 Ave, Flores La Due Parade into the district, or coming in from 25 Avenue is your best bet. Taking the train is always an excellent choice,” she said.”

Echo opens on Aug. 30 and runs until Oct. 19, with tickets available at www.cirquedusoleil.com/canada/calgary/echo/buy-tickets.