From Richard Reynolds #1

!cid_X_MA1_1327444621@aol, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. Cavalia's newest show, Odysseo, is nearing the end of its lengthy run in Atlanta. It opened on December 7th and is now scheduled to close on January 29th. Here is the set up in Atlanta's midtown at Spring and 8th Sts.(Spring is just out of sight to the left). 8th runs parallel to this side of the big top. This view looks south. To get it in the view-finder, I had to take the photo standing on a hill at Spring and 10th St two blocks north. The Chevron station is on 10th. Out of sight to the right, just beyond the tent lies the Downtown Connector (the combined I-75/85). Many readers will have traveled that highway through Atlanta. This is the largest tent put up in Atlanta since 1955 when RBBB set up at the Lakewood Fairgrounds. Odysseo's top is 380 ft long and 175 ft wide. The two twin masts at either end are 125 ft tall. The sidewalls must be upwards of 30 to 35 ft high as were Cavalia's when it played here in late 2010. The four external metal arches support the "canvas" fulfilling the role of old time center poles. So, what we have is sort of a six pole big top without any poles obstructing the view from the seats, which are all on one side as were those of Cavalia. The seats face the stage on which the performance takes place. It is 160 ft wide. There are 2,290 seats, not all that many given the size of the top. The top houses all the concessions and "joints." On Cavalia they under a separate tent. There are also stable tents for the horses (69 in number) plus others for support functions. The tops of some of these satellite tents may be seen just above the Chevron station. In a sense Cavalia and Odysseo are throw backs to the original America circus introduced by John Bill Ricketts in 1793 and those which followed him, notably Pepin and Breschard in 1807 et seq. Those shows focused on horses and horsemanship with some clowns, wire walkers and the like thrown in. Odysseo does the same. Its cast includes 55 performers. Unlike the big tops of old which could be erected in a matter of hours, Odysseo's top took some 5 weeks to set up. The Spring-8th lot is ordinarily used for parking, and it slopes downhill from left to right (in this photo). To make it level for the show, tons of fill had to be hauled in raising it some 20 ft in places. This lot first saw a circus in April 1933 when the motorized Downie Bros played there on April 21-22 (Fri-Sat). It paraded on Friday with the route heading south on Spring toward downtown which, back then, lay nearly two miles to the south. In 1933 the Spring and 8th location was a residential area with nice homes surrounding the grassy lot - - nothing at all like the high rise surroundings of today. In 1939-40 a new Coca-Cola bottling plant was built on the lot, making it unavailable for field shows. That changed in 1987 when the plant was torn down in favor of a newer one in a different location. That returned the lot once again to an open area. In late 1991 Cirque du Soleil played there and did so again in 1993 and 1995 after which the lot went unused for field shows until Odysseo.