The girls and I logged quite a large number of miles in our car last month. As usual, we spent quite a large part of our time tuned into Sirius/XM Kids Place Live. One evening, Robbie Schaefer interviewed a number of performers and other folk involved in Cirque du Soleil’s OVO. Chloe was so excited when she heard that it was currently in Atlanta (unlike us) that I decided we’d have to figure out how to take her down to the big top at Atlantic Station.
It was a freezing evening in Atlanta last night, and, as I wasn’t sure how insulated the tent would be, I made sure the girls wore lots of layers! Parking was a little confusing and cost $10. We made our way over to the tent, picked up our will call tickets and headed in.
We had arrived early, but that gave us plenty of time to check out the restrooms (glorified potra-potties — COLD), the gift stores and the refreshments. The gift stores had lots of neat stuff, like a dollhouse-sized circus tent, but they were quite expensive, despite the $5 discount for using an AmEx. Camille liked one of the t-shirts, but with a $89 price tag, I wasn’t in the mood to get it. We headed over to get some snacks — we hadn’t eaten dinner and I figured we could get something there. With popcorn costing $6.50 an sodas and water costing $6, I was no inclined to let the girls splurge. I did, however, like that trash was separated into recycling, compost and trash. I don’t think anyone was checking for outside food, so I’d certainly bring in, at minimum, my own water next time.
Chloe could not wait to go in. Our seats were in the top row. As there aren’t that many rows, that wasn’t a problem. The problem was that we were off to the side slightly, and there was a “tent pole” blocking our view of a few of the scenes. The seats were packed tightly and not very comfortable, but this is the circus, right? We were super hot from the dry, hot air being forced in and quickly stripped off many of our layers. We felt a bit like jack-in-the-boxes as we had to get up to let people come in further down the row.
Then the show started. Chloe was entranced. Acrobatics, wall climbing, trapeze, slapstick comedy, beautiful costumes and more. I’m sure that Chloe is ready to run off to join the circus now! Luckily, we were at the end of the row, with two empty seats at the top of the stairs, so Chloe could move around to get a good view for herself.
We stepped out for the 30 minute intermission, getting a FREE refill for our water and stretching a bit.
The show continued to be spectacular, and then, too soon for Chloe, it was over. People moved fairly well towards the parking deck, but getting out of the deck was a supreme disaster. Each car had to have the gate opened by a guy checking parking tickets. Chaos.
Photography was prohibited. While I can understand that during the performance it would be distracting to the performers and other audience members, the “bouncers” were still strictly enforcing the rule at the curtain call. As if all those people with the phone cameras are going to do anything with the photos but show their friends and encourage more people to go to the show?? , did take one photo before the show started and I hadn’t realized how strictly the rule would be enforced. (Notice that all the photos here were taken with my iPhone as I figured my SLR would not be welcome…)
Sounds like a fun time. We’d love to see a Cirque du Soleil show some time. Glad Chloe enjoyed it so much!