Big Top Going Up In Downtown Miami For New Show

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Residents and visitors of Downtown Miami may have noticed that something big is going up in Bicentennial Park.

Really big.

Once complete, the 125 foot tall, 120,000 square foot tent will be home to Cavalia's new show Odysseo which will premier in Miami under the big top on February 29th.

Over 200 people will work on the mammoth structure, the largest touring tent in the world, to get it ready for the show's opening. Once complete, the tent will house an immense 8,200-square-foot stage for the shows 70 equine and 50 human performers.

Two and a quarter times larger than the big top used on the original, still-touring Cavalia show, the tent will comfortable seat nearly 2,300 spectators who will have an unobstructed view of all the action thanks to innovative architects and engineers who borrowed structurally from cathedral arches to open up the interior.

According to Cavalia, Odysseo "marries the equestrian arts, stage arts and high-tech theatrical effects at never-before-seen levels". To help achieve this they have an 80-ton technical grid, as big as that found in the best-equipped permanent theaters in the world, which supports lighting, a full-size merry-go-round and 18 projectors that create high-definition landscape backdrops on screens twice the size of a standard IMAX.