Odysseo by Cavalia Raises Its Collosal Big Top Near Opryland in Nashville for its Tennessee Debut!

Check HERE for Ticket Savings! The most impressive and immense big top on the planet – part of the largest touring production ever created – has been raised in Nashville (near Opryland by Briley Parkway at exit 12), in preparation for the much-anticipated Tennessee debut of Odysseo, an exceptional theatrical adventure by Cavalia. Imagined by Normand Latourelle – one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soleil – the $30 million extravaganza that expands the definition of performance into an epic, yet soulful theatrical experience will open under the gigantic White Big Top August 30, with matinee and evening shows scheduled through September 10. Yesterday, at the show’s site, Claudia Huskey (Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Nashville), Robert Swope (District 4 Council Member) and John Adams (Gaylord Opryland VP & Market General Manager) joined Normand Latourelle (Cavalia Founder and Artistic Director) for brief remarks about the excitement of bringing such a unique production to Music City. Huskey, Swope, Adams, and Latourelle, alongside District 15 Council Member Jeff Syracuse, cut the symbolic ribbon heralding the official arrival of the production in Nashville.

While the White Big Top rose to the sky, guests and members of the press toured the impressive site that will soon host the epic experience Odysseo by Cavalia – a breathtaking production featuring more than 100 horses, riders, acrobats, dancers, aerialists and musicians. Standing 125 feet tall and covering a surface area of 58,397 square feet – the size of a football field – Odysseo’s exceptional White Big Top is a mix of art, technology and advanced engineering. In order to break through the limitations of standard big top tents, allow for more flexibility in the performance area, and to give the horses the space they need to express themselves in all their beauty, Normand Latourelle partnered with specialized companies in Europe and Canada to create the high-tech structure. By removing the usual supporting masts from the stage and shifting the weight of the structure from the masts to three arches above the tent, this specially designed White Big Top is the best environment for the horses and acrobats to perform breathtaking numbers and for the creative team to design immense staging.

This unprecedented ‘traveling theatre’ is also composed of several exceptional features including its grandiose stage – larger than The Predators ice rink – that enables large-scale, cutting-edge creative performances. Faced by bleachers with 2,074 seats, just like an auditorium setting, the 17,500-square-foot stage requires 10,000 tons of stone, earth and sand to create so that it offers nature on stage, a vast space of freedom where more than 100 two and four-legged stars can display their intimate collaboration.
The multi-dimensional and magical world of Odysseo is conjured through images of the most beautiful landscapes from around the world, projected onto an 8,400-square-foot screen, a feast for the eyes with staggering effects created by state-of-the-art scenery. Odysseo’s technical grid, worthy of the largest permanent installations in Las Vegas, New York or London, can support 80 tons of equipment for the stage needs of the show, including a majestic life-sized merry-go-round.

During the breathtaking finale, a vertiginous virtual waterfall overhangs a lake made possible by an underground drain system that releases 40,000 gallons of recycled water onto the stage, in which horses, riders and artists join to frolic, leaving behind them the traces of their splashes—and an astonished audience.

The White Big Top is just one part of a larger ensemble; the Odysseo village will take shape over the next few weeks and consists of five tents: the White Big Top, the stable tent, the Rendez-Vous VIP tent, the warm-up & artistic tent, and the kitchen tent serving the 200 permanent employees. In total, 110 semi-trailer trucks will be required to transport the world’s largest touring production to Nashville.

Odysseo is a veritable revolution in live entertainment that marries the equestrian arts, stage performances, and high-tech theatrical effects in never-before-seen ways.