John and I first saw Cirque du Soleil when we visited the Expo in Zaragoza, where we saw many of their acrobats and jugglers taking part in a procession. When we discovered they were due to perform in Alicante, we asked our friends John and Lesley if they were interested in seeing them too, and luckily they immediately agreed! Even if we hadn’t been chauffered there and had travelled on three buses from Jumilla, we would have said it was worth going, as it was an incredible show.
- La Gran Carpa – Cirque du Soleil, Alicante
When we arrived at the entrance, a nice young man from Barcelona told us that our seats weren’t that good (we are all pensioners, so we had bought the cheapest tickets available!) and showed us to the front row. Yes, he gave us the best seats in the house – result!
No superlatives are good enough to describe the amazing, fantastic, brilliant, best show ever that we witnessed. The first hour went by incredibly quickly as the artistes spun, juggled, flew through the air and amazed us with their skills and daring. It was colourful, spectacular and they even had live music, which enhanced the whole experience.
There was comedy as well as drama: John had a hat full of popcorn emptied over him, before the hat was plonked on his head. The other John, Lesley and I thought it was very funny! Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera ready to hand to capture the sight, as we had been told not to use cameras during the show for safety reasons. This was quite understandable when you saw the split-second timing as two catchers threw two trapeze artists through the air simultaneously and then caught the one flying towards them.
The organisation was superb: the show began on time (virtually unknown in our part of Spain!), with a half hour interval after the first hour of the show, followed by another hour’s entertainment. Lesley and I browsed round the stalls, however we couldn’t justify buying anything as most articles on sale were fairly expensive, though of good quality. There was air conditioning too, so don’t go in shorts: our friend John said his knees were cold!
Drinks cost over 4€, however we had brought bottles of water with us, and we had also enjoyed a cool copa de vino latino beforehand, so we didn’t bother. Our tickets had cost us 26.50€ (discounted on the Cirque du Soleil website) which we thought was amazing value for money, especially when we were shown to the prime seats!
All I can say is that if you get the opportunity to see Cirque du Soleil, do so. If you become a member of the Cirque Club they will send you details of any offers: sign up on the Cirque du Soleil website.