“Create space. Be patient.”
That’s the advice Dominic Pavone, Senior Director, Event Services at Cleveland Cavaliers/Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio, has for any other venue lucky enough to book the brand-new Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth.
It is a 27-truck production, requiring 125 rigging points to handle 128,912 pounds of equipment. It’s akin to a Vegas-type rock show in load-in and load-out, night and day from the former Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus; number one, because the new Ringling has no animals.
Cleveland presented six shows Oct. 6-8 and had the distinction of being the first big arena to host Feld Entertainment’s reimagined Ringling. Therefore, Pavone couldn’t do a site visit and advance the show.
The veteran Feld team communicated very well, and he knew most of what to expect. He knew the show was very large, very spread out. It took three days to load it in, and the first two were 14-hour days each. The third day was 11 hours, including rehearsals and lighting focus, and went into overnight.
“We had 130 stagehands for the load-in on day one and another 71 we brought back for day two, so we were at 201 stagehands for the first two days,” he said. “For the out, we brought back 156 stagehands. That’s a huge number for an event.”
He was called down to the floor the first day of load in to find out the production required more floor anchors. “I said, ‘Okay, talk to me about what that looks like. What are they for? Can we pivot away, or is it mandatory?’ It was mandatory, or they would have to remove an act from the show,” Pavone recalled.
The marquee outside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland. (Photo Credit: Carrie Samek)
So, they brought in X-ray technicians who specialize in concrete to map out existing anchors, glycol lines for ice, and rebar that vein the concrete floor. “He could say, ‘you have a 2-inch by 2-inch square here you can hit if that anchor works for you.’ We let them do the drilling,” Pavone said.
“Everybody was on the same page. We understood the sensitivity to it – it was safety. It was meeting in the middle and everybody working together,” he said. There was an advance scout doing a site visit from Fiserv Arena in Milwaukee in the house that very day, and Pavone says she immediately homed in on the anchors issue, calling home to construction to prepare for the show there. Pavone shared the X-ray map.
Every arena that has hosted the circus, which left the road five years ago, still has floor anchors for the rigging and netting. But, this production is huge, spread out over a 200-by-85 foot wide hockey floor. “We were lucky; we didn’t have our ice in,” Pavone said, but even if they had, and even though Feld says it can perform over ice, he would have taken the ice out for this.
They ended up with 14 anchors on each side of the floor. In addition, to maintain integrity and hold those lines, they brought in another 8-12 concrete Jersey barriers to wrap those wires around before they were anchored, specifically for the safety nets of the trapeze artists and high wire acts.
This Feld show is different from a concert, which might have 20 trucks and 20 drivers on a show. The 27 production trucks are really trailers parked in a staging area the arena rented from the city down near Cleveland Browns Stadium. The trailers were dropped off and four drivers proceeded to hitch them to their cabs and bring them to the arena in a predetermined order for load-in.
“It was efficient. It did take some time, but because of the volume of stuff we were hanging, that time was built in. It helped soften the blow of constantly rushing. This was a methodical load-in,” Pavone said.
In addition, there are three merchandise trucks. Due to sheer volume of production trucks, the arena staff had to identify a secondary location off the street to load in merchandise because they were out of room and “we have quite a lot of room,” Pavone said. “We’ll load in 20 trucks and 12 buses on a rock and roll show like it’s no problem. The volume they had, we had to identify a second location for their merch.”
The show also required removing three rows of seats in two different sections to build audio and lights for front of house. “We knew that early on, so that was included in the on-sale map,” he said.
However, and this is just the nature of the beast when you’re hosting a show for the first time, there were quite a few relocations once production was in and up, due to obstructed sightlines. “They had the forethought to keep production holds in their pocket,” Pavone said of the Feld team. “They really did prep themselves putting veterans in charge.”
Pavone gives a lot of credit to the Feld team for splendid communications and to his own operations team for being flexible (knowing they had a hockey game in two weeks), as well as to everyone involved for being patient.
“It’s a long load in, long load out,” he said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when people are asking for more. You have to remain flexible and make sure it gets off on time and safely.”
There was a lot of pivoting, because Cleveland was the first show in such a large building. “Their team was fantastic. There were a lot of Feld veterans out on this run. We knew there would be pivots and patience needed in order to get something this size up for the first time. But then you have a deadline on the other end. Having to be ready for the show Friday.”
Pavone is going into his 17th year at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and knew a lot of the Feld production team because they have been through the building many times before. “They are all mild mannered, patient, and willing to work with us. We were lucky to have veterans on both sides,” including Feld’s Matt Gillet and Erick Del Castillo.
“When we got to load out, we did it in 10 hours. They expected 12. They overshot, so we weren’t startled. We were making ice the next day. It was efficient and awesome,” Pavone said.
Carrie Samek, senior director, event & media marketing for the arena, was tasked with educating the audience about the new Ringling. It’s been so long since the circus toured, people weren’t necessarily expecting the elephants. Feedback was positive.
She emphasized the visual, the spectacular performances, and the ticket price ($25-$95+) which is family friendly and loaded with discount opportunities. There were offers all summer long, including back to school and blood drive offers. “Feld is very good with all those opportunities for families to bring their kids,” Samek said.
She invited media outlets to come in and see rehearsals and did plenty of media drops, including cookies and cotton candy.
She had to explain the Greatest Show on Earth without the word “circus” and with no “clowns” (just comedian performers), but Ringling is still a very known brand, the famous “R” logo, and she could visually show what it would be.
In the end, 50 percent of ticket buyers had 1-2 kids and were young parents age 35-42. “I brought my own nieces and nephews. Under age eight was the hot spot for kids,” Samek said. Her nieces are in gymnastics and loved the acrobats. She worked with Cleveland Cavaliers lists for sports fans.
She also worked with local mom influencers, hosting an opening night party where a couple of performers performed for them. “They promote the show from the moment it’s announced,” she said. “Once here, they post how great it is, which is good for last minute sales.” Cleveland also benefitted from good timing — the fall season, when parents are looking for things to do with kids.
Feld’s new production has 75 performers from 18 countries. Plus crew, it’s a big stretch backstage, but Cleveland had another lucky break there. They had just debuted phase one of a $12 million renovation of the dressing and locker rooms. Feld’s cast and crew were the first beneficiaries and most complimentary.
It ended being a very good run for the new Ringling’s Greatest Show on Earth, all agreed, but how does it compare to the circus?
“Other than everything, nothing is different,” Pavone said.
