Cirque du Soleil
Thursday, 25th August 2005 by Alex Turnbull
This is the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal. Well, it's one of them anyway.. the 'Circus of the Sun' is an entertainment company founded in 1984 by former fire-eater Guy Laliberté, and actually consists of at least 11 different troups of performers (Wikipedia page).
Cirque du Soleil isn't a circus in the traditional sense (because they don't use any animals), but they do all sorts of stuff involving contortionists, jugglers, feats of strength, clowning, and trapeze artists. You can see one of their travelling set-ups in what is usually an empty car park in Minneapolis. Just north of here is Saint Anthony Falls, which also looks pretty cool from up here.
I saw one of their performances once in the Albert Hall, and I thoroughly recommened checking them out if you get the chance, it's incredible stuff. As it happens, they'll be performing permanently at the Tokyo Disney Resort beginning in 2008 if you're planning a trip!
Thanks to Lowrent, Jean-Sébastien, Dauns, Robert Craig, Eric Veilleux and Andy.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Not quite as interesting, but they already have a permanent set-up at Disney Orlando for their show “La Nouba.” View Placemark
They also have three permanent shows in Las Vegas, including one that takes place in and over water.
They are HUGE here in Canada. Normally they will start all their tours across Canada so we normally get the first taste of their new show 🙂 I was in Europe and I saw a sign for one of their shows that was out a long time ago in Canada. I have personally never seen them in show or on TV, but I have heard they are freaking amazing. Heck, even Daily Planet – a very popular daily 1-hour science show on Discovery- is doing a week-long special about them.
Oh my god, I was just submitting a sight where these swirly circus things were featured. In my case it was in Vancouver (Canada).
Here’s something weird I found out. This is the Google Maps URL (weird, no swirly things, eh?), and this is what you see on Google Earth (but now the circus is clearly there), but then if you look at Google Maps.. and it’s gone!
Is this proof that Google Earth and Google Maps use different versions of the satellite imagery? And if so, which one’s the most recent? (Despite both of them having copyright on 2005.. one must newer!)
Oh, the mystery! 😮
Haha, that is right in downtown Vancouver, right near ScienceWorld, BC Place, and GM Place.
Anyway, I think that the one with Cirque du Soleil is newer.
Google Earth also shows them set up near Tropicana Field in Tampa FL, but not in Google Maps.
Well mystery solved. The one on the top is Varekai. I used to work there and we know that picture’s date because of Varekai being in Montreal. The updated satellite image doesn’t show it because the show had moved on (I just saw this while I was looking for us.) As a side note, I believe the white tents in MN are the show Allegria.
The show from the top pic (Varekai) is in downtown Pittsburgh, PA next to Heinz Field in the most recent mapping.
I saw Kooza a month ago, it’s too much awesome! I heard about it but I never doubted it would be so much cool! I love it!
The first one is not visible anymore