Catching Up

OK, so I'm going to cheat a bit here.  I'm going to back-date a few posts to catch us up to speed on the action.  (It's July 3rd now, but I'm dating the posts as of when I took the photos.)  We have been very busy, and I can only post from the hotel room . . . which we're not in very often.  On with pictures!

The tent is nearing completion.  Lots of things to work out:  placement for props, wings, ramps and stairs for the stage, marking out stage positions, preparing the backstage area, firing up the A/C, sound systems, and lighting.  Lighting cues are tremendously important and will keep Mia very busy over the next couple of days.  Because we have day and night shows, some tweaks have to be made to compensate for the difference in sunlight/darkness outside.  My flash makes the tent look darker than it actually is in the tent at mid-day.

Two thousand seats to be placed and (hopefully) filled with delighted audiences.  The black curtains will eventually line the whole tent to help block out sunlight, but enough light still gets in that we can't do one bit with glow-in-the-dark props for the day show.  Too bad, as I really like that piece.  The day crowd gets an alternate segment that the dancers have already rehearsed.

The sound booth.  Lilik is our local sound engineer.  Every act and every transition has music that has to be timed just right.

On the third, outdoor stage is a European group called Cyclown Circus.  Today they had a photo session in our tent.  Really interesting cats and I will have more on them later.  They travel around the world mixing stunts with music, comedy and street performance - and they typically travel around on giant bicycles.  I have never met a group like this before.  Do check out their website.

There is a small army of people . . . actually a fairly large army of people . . . putting this gigantic space into shape for the festival.  The China tent is equal in size to ours, plus a large outside stage of Cyclown and musical performances, plus scores of booths for food, games, and other performances.  And they say an army marches on its stomach.  There are a host of little catering tents like this one set up where the workers get hot meals and traditional Indonesian style coffee (like what I know as Turkish coffee with the coffee "mud" at the bottom of the cup).

I had to make a run out to get dinner for one of the performers who missed lunch and would also not be able to get back to the hotel for dinner.  Moped ride!  That is the China tent in the distance.

While we were at the restaurant it started raining.  Unfortunately my battery died . . . try to imagine me in the next picture with dinner in one hand and an umbrella in the other keeping me and Omar dry.  What I wouldn't give to have that shot.