CirqueCon 2004: Before the Adventure Began

Part of the magic of Cirque du Soleil is how the artists make it look so easy. The audience sees only the final product – the act – not the years of practice leading up to it. But it’s those years of practice that make the act work. It takes not only the artist, but coaches, teachers, parents, judges, physiotherapists – an entire team. And so it is with group excursions, like CirqueCon Vancouver 2004. It took more than one person to make it happen.

It took a team. And that team has a story.

Which starts in Summer 2003. Here at Fascination! a kind source had just supplied us with tour dates much further into the future than had yet been made public. This confirmed what we had already heard by rumor – that Quidam would bypass Asia after its year-long tour of Japan, and make stops in Vancouver and Calgary, Canada over late Spring 2004 before embarking on its year-long tour of Australia. This was quite significant for us, as it meant Quidam would be on the North American continent for only a short time before being overseas again, perhaps for years.

Back in Newport News, VA, Jeff Tolotti was a frequent contributor to the Cirque du Soleil Yahoogroup. Soon after we had made the tour info public, Jeff posted an idea on the message board. What would people think about a group trip to see Quidam when it came to Vancouver? Several people soon responded that, indeed, they would be interested. The discussion then centered on which weekend would be best. A consensus started to gather around May 14-16, 2004, two weeks prior to the Memorial Day Holiday.

But before we go further, a little background. My wife LouAnna (also known as “Lucy”) and I have been involved in literary (non media-centered) science fiction convention planning for 20 years. We work on Convention Committees that meet throughout the year. We call our convention Norwescon and it occurs every year over Easter weekend, attracting 2,500 science fiction fans to Seattle. It’s by no means the largest SF convention in America, but we’re proud of it. Tons of research, phone calls, messages and meetings are the norm. There are myriad small details that need to be decided or acted upon. You can’t just snap your fingers and make it happen. If you do your job well, all the time and effort spent beforehand are invisible to your attendees, who see only the finished product.

On occasion, I’ve taken my experience in working on conventions and applied them to organizing group trips. I’ve done several including groups of SF fans going to world science fiction conventions, also known as “WorldCon,” in Orlando, FL in 1988 and Anaheim, CA in 1992, with more than 20 participants for each trip. My job as Trip Coordinator was to do the research and planning, make the calls and photocopies, and provide a basic framework for the members. I learned that, as with conventions, no matter how hard you try you can’t please everyone. Knowing that not everybody will be happy you try to please the largest number you can.

After our trip to see Alegria in Vancouver in July of 2003, LouAnna and I knew the fun of a romantic weekend in a beautiful city. So we instantly knew we would have to do it again for Quidam. We also decided, since we had “enlightened” several of our relatives and friends to Cirque du Soleil that it might be fun if we enlarged our group a bit and invited them along.

LouAnna’s father (“Dad”) was instantly enthusiastic. LouAnna also asked her Aunt Barb and Cousin Shelly, whom Dad would travel from his home base of Spokane, WA to Missoula, MT to pick up and bring to Seattle so we could spend the weekend together. In addition, my Best Man and his wife decided to join us. Erstwhile editor Ricky Russo also decided to fly from Orlando, FL to join us for the weekend. So from a small party of two we were quickly a party of eight.

With a party that big, housing became an issue. For Alegria in Vancouver we stayed for the first time in a Bed and Breakfast. The B&B we chose was close to the Cirque tent site, a Victorian-style house in a quiet neighborhood. Though it was hot the weekend we went and the room had no air conditioning it was cozy, quiet and, yes, romantic. What fun it would be, we thought, if everyone stayed in rooms at one B&B. It would be fun, affordable, and homey. The rest of our party was amenable, but before we could make our reservation, Jeff posted his idea about a group trip on the YahooGroups Cirque discussion list.

Without consulting my wife (a fact she now frequently reminds me of ), I posted privately to Jeff to tell him of our group, and that the weekend we were considering was one week hence, May 21-23. (Up to this point, I’ll bet both groups thought they were the only ones!) I also told him of our plans to book rooms in a Bed and Breakfast. Would his group be interested in booking rooms together with mine if I could block them all for our use? It would, however, require them changing their weekend. He consulted with the group, who took to the idea.

With the weekend decided upon, it became my responsibility to book the bed and breakfasts. Owners Paul Findlay and Leslie Lewington (www.dougwin.com) seemed receptive to the idea, but not at our original choice, Windsor House. They suggested their two other properties, Douglas House and Cambie Lodge, which it so happened were right next to each other on the same street! They would be happy to block out all the rooms in both houses for that weekend if we agreed to use those two properties.

The plan was simple. I would have a hold on all the rooms, so no one would be able to contact the B&B directly. I would take reservations and keep track of them. At a point just after the first of the year, I would relay the information to Paul and Leslie, and inform the room holders to put the rooms in their names by getting in direct contact with the B&B. At some point in late March I would release my hold on the rest of the rooms, allowing the B&B to fill rooms not used by our members.

Now that we had suddenly grown from a group of 8 to 16 or so, we were no longer just Jeff or my friends. We were a larger group, and with numbers come organizational issues. We decided to open our “group” up to others who might like to join. But what should we name ourselves? I had organized my other SF fan tours under the moniker “Tour De Mondo,” but that didn’t seem to fit. I also suggested “CirqueCon,” an offshoot of the “-con” naming of SF conventions (Norwescon, Worldcon, etc.). That seemed to fit better. In order to convey the idea that this might be one in a series of events (if we might be so lucky as to survive our first attempt and actually want to have a second) we added the location and year to the name, making it “CirqueCon Vancouver 2004.” Some time later, an emailer referred to our group as “Passionates.” It sounded so much better than “Fans” or “Cirquies.” We liked the word so much we subtitled the weekend, “The First Unofficial Gathering of Cirque du Soleil Passionates.”

So we had a weekend, a name, and a place to stay, but how would we get the word out? We needed a forum to describe our plan to anyone that wanted to see it at any time. Jeff had a solution for that; creating a webpage with the basic information! We came up with text concerning the trip and Bed and Breakfasts, with complete room descriptions, pricing (in American dollars including all taxes), and the procedure for booking a room. Jeff was also “on the ball” removing room listings as rooms filled. By the time we got the website up tickets had gone on sale to Cirque Club members.

In addition to the webpage we felt we needed an outlet for “progress reports”. So we asked Editor Ricky if he would add the Newsletter’s sponsorship to the endeavor. He agreed, so CirqueCon Vancouver 2004 became “Sponsored by the Fascination! Newsletter.”

I proposed a simple agenda for the weekend, so that people could have the maximum amount of time to see the sites of Vancouver (several, it turned out, used the time to take in multiple viewings of Quidam, some as many as four!). I felt a group meal was a must, and had originally proposed it for Friday evening. In talking with our attendees and finding out when they would arrive in Vancouver, I found that several members wouldn’t be arriving until very late on Friday or early Saturday. So the dinner got moved to Saturday afternoon at 4pm, prior to that evenings show. I looked for a place that could accommodate a group our size, while still allowing the option of separate checks, space to sit together, and a menu that was varied enough for different diets. We finally settled on the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, (http://www.oldspaghettifactory.ca/location_vancouver.html) the original restaurant in the franchise. They seemed willing to work with a group with our quirks and could get us fed in a reasonable aamount of time.

The question then became whether to schedule anything Friday evening. LouAnna and I worked on an idea of having a combination “Cocktail Hour” and “Show and Tell” session. Friday would probably be the only opportunity for us to share our finest Cirque collectibles with each other. LouAnna, ever the social hostess, wanted to put out a spread of meats, cheeses, candies (Aplets and Cotlets of course!) as well as some of the “Cirque du Rose” wine we had found. So she started planning the food spread, while I informed everyone to bring their collectibles. The Bed and Breakfast folks graciously allowed us to use the kitchen area of Douglas House for the gathering.

Rooms started to fill. We eventually reached capacity at Douglas House (the “main” house) bolstered by mine and Jeffs folks renting six of the buildings eight rooms (three others technically attached to the house were actually in a commercial building next door). As they came on board, I spoke to each of our members by phone to bring them up to speed (and from what I heard later raised some of them (who worked swing or graveyard) out of their sleep, for which I apologize). They had various questions involving the rooms, payment, attractions and getting over the border. But the most often asked question was whether we might be able to do any “special Cirque things” during the weekend, such as a backstage tour or meeting a performer.

Most questions were easy to answer. I started an e-mail mailing list and sent information on weather, traffic, how to cross the border and what kind of identification would be needed. Interestingly several members of the group, spurred on by Jeff, planned to fly into Seattle where they would rent vehicles and drive up. They did this because rates to fly directly into Vancouver seemed to be much higher than Seattle.

As people started to commit, and our numbers quickly grew to 25, I started to think about aspects of my SF convention running experience that might apply. While it wasn’t my intent to act as “activities director” I wanted to provide an outlet for people to express their interests for things to see in Vancouver. I’ve found that people in group tour situations tend to give in to the “will” of the most dominant people in the group and subjugate their own desires. Besides, it wasn’t just one or two groups of friends, it was them plus several others unattached to the main “cliques.” So I started a running list of attractions people were interested in, sending it back to the members on a regular basis.

We also discussed how it might be nice to have some sort of permanent “souvenir” of the gathering. For SF conventions that comes in two forms. One is a “badge” worn to indicate that you’re a member, or “part” of the convention. Since many of us had never seen each other before I thought it would be a good way to “break the ice.” The other is a “Program Book” that serves as a “guide” to the weekend as well as a keepsake, with a schedule, articles and pictures.

Ricky and Jeff responded positively to the Program Book idea. The badge was a different thing, as they both felt it a bit “geeky” for our group. They felt folks would not necessarily want to be visually identified as Cirque du Soleil fans. I got an even stronger reaction when I suggested we get lanyards so folks could wear the badges around their necks! We compromised on the badges, with Jeff providing a beautiful design with each persons name and state on them, and making the lanyards an option. As it turned out many members loved the badges, wearing them proudly around their necks with the lanyard!

In addition to these items, Jeff had the idea to create a self-compiled CD that he would hand out to members. He wanted to share tracks from his collection of CDs by Cirque musicians outside of Cirque. He had tracks from Francesca Gagnon, Rene Dupere and Elise Velle, Joey Arias, and others that he planned to use.

Unbeknownst to him, I had contemplated the same idea! My concept was to consolidate a number of pieces of “rare” Cirque du Soleil music that I had collected onto one CD. I wanted to share the first Cirque du Soleil vinyl 45 recorded by their first band La Fanfafonie, and tracks from a first version of the debut “Cirque Du Soleil” CD that didn’t make it onto the second re-recording. I wanted to “fill in” missing music from Saltimbanco and Alegria using the limited-edition “Live!” CDs. And I wanted to share other “source” music and tunes influenced by Cirque, such as Josh Groban’s version of “Let Me Fall.”

Upon finding out we both had the same idea, we decided to collaborate and create a two-CD set produced especially for CirqueCon Vancouver. In a mass CD exchange he provided me with better copies of some of the things I wanted, and I sent him several CDs that he had not aquired yet. We worked independently to compile, sequence, and master our respective CD’s, with Jeff doing the final duplication and coming up with nice artwork for the covers and CD labels.

The Program Book also began to take shape. With Jeff taking the lead as our Publications Coordinator, material started to be written. Ricky supplied a medley of articles about Quidam that had previously been printed in Fascination! Jeff provided another great effort in our color cover and wrote liner notes for his CD. He also handled the copying, collating and purchasing needed to make 40 copies of the Program Book a reality. (Though we thought we would only need 30 copies, we decided on a print run of 40 to be able to give away sets to interested parties we might meet. As it was, we ended up giving them all away!) I wrote up liner notes for my CD and “track facts” for both, as well as the “title” page (a bit of pseudo-Cirque program book channeling), an itinerary, and tour history and credits. (Unfortunately, in the last-minute rush to get things done I completely forgot to include our contact information as well as a copyright statement. Oh well…)

Meanwhile, our costs began to mount. CD’s, paper, copying, and phone calls cost money! We agreed that since we were doing these things for free for our new “friends” we wouldn’t ask them to contribute to the costs. We kept track of them during the process and promised to somehow split the costs after the weekend was over.

The question of “special Cirque things” was still elusive. We had made no promises in anything we had written or said, but through Fascination!, Ricky knew of some people we might be able to contact. We started making enquiries but didn’t think we would be able to do much more than perhaps meet our Quidam drummer friend, BJ, after the show for a drink.

That was before one fateful morning back in mid-April when, completely out of the blue, we received a message from Mr. Andre Belanger from Cirque du Soleil in Montreal. The message stated that he had heard about our efforts and wanted to see if there was a way Cirque du Soleil could work with us. This was totally unexpected, but could be the key to making the weekend special for our members. (In retrospect I think it was our numbers and high profile that caught Cirque’s eye. If we hadn’t had more than 25 enthusiastic attendees, or hadn’t made our efforts public, I wonder if they would have been interested.)

We decided Ricky would be the contact point between us and Mr. Belanger. Ricky responded that we would indeed be interested, and kept in contact while Mr. Belanger worked behind-the-scenes at Cirque. We had to keep it confidential until everything was confirmed and ready to announce, but the potential was exciting.

After some time Mr. Belanger came back with some exciting news. He offered us a pre-show behind-the-scenes tour of the Quidam site and an after-show meet and greet/Q&A with some performers. In addition, he wanted a smaller segment of our group involved in a discussion about Cirque merchandising with Genevieve Bastien, a fellow Cirque employee who would be flying in from Montreal IHQ with Mr. Belanger for our weekend. As if the initial contact wasn’t exciting enough, these proposed plans were even more so!

As the final week before the vacation came into view, things started flying at a faster pace. We grew in number from 25 to 30 with some last-minute additions. Since I had released the rest of the Bed and Breakfast’s rooms weeks before, and they had all been filled, new members had to make their own room arrangements. Jeff came up with the final designs for the badge and program covers. Final text made its way to Jeff for inclusion in the Program Book. Mr. Belanger confirmed the schedule of events for Saturday, which we excitedly released to our group that Monday.

Wednesday evening, LouAnna’s dad Cal arrived with Aunt Barb and Cousin Shelly. We had a bar-b-que and invited LouAnna’s kids and our grandkids to a get-together. We planned to use the next day to tour Seattle with our relatives. Everyone was excited about the coming weekend.

In another unexpected occurrence, Thursday morning I received an email from Gillian Morris at Dunn Mitchell Communications in Vancouver. They are Cirque’s Vancouver PR firm and wanted to talk about our group and activities. For what reason I didn’t know, but (since I wouldn’t be near my computer that day) I left a phone message for her before leaving for our days activities.

Just after reaching Pike Place Market (Seattle’s farmers market) my cell phone rang. Ms. Morris? No, it was Ricky! Mr. Belanger had just contacted him, asking for the names of everyone in our group. It might be possible to “upgrade our tickets” but no promises. What could *that* mean? I had maintained a master contact list of all of our members but hadn’t sent Ricky or Jeff the final version. So instead of enjoying Pike Place with LouAnna and our relatives, I was reading and spelling our members names to Ricky over the phone from my copy.

Soon after that my cell phone rang again. This time it was indeed Ms. Morris, who had been made aware of our trip and wanted some basic information for a “Media Advisory” she would be creating. This “advisory” is sent out to media outlets as a “heads up,” letting them know about coverage-worthy events. Unfortunately, when she called, we were right in the middle of ordering lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the Market! My being distracted from our group while chatting on the phone was not what LouAnna was looking for from me. I could also feel the costs mount as I talked, as the phones LouAnna and I use are on a per-minute plan (though with very reasonable rates through my work) since we only use them in emergencies.

I gave Ms. Morris the information she needed to create the advisory. At the end of the conversation I asked, “Do you really think the media will come out to see little old us? We’re just a bunch of Cirque du Soleil fans.” Her voice had that tone of experience I should have heeded. “Oh Yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. (I found out later that the “headline” of the Media Advisory she wrote was, “The Cirquies Come To Town!” This would be a bone of contention with many of our members, who reject the term as being too much like “Trekkies.” Ms. Morris needed a quick and concise attention-grabbing headline and had created that title on her own. But it would become the basis for much of the coverage we would later get.)

Friday morning came all too soon. With all of the party supplies, Cirque collectibles, and baggage for five people, both our cars’ trunks were quite full. LouAnna, Dad, Barb and Shelly made their way north in one car, while I went to Sea-Tac Airport to pick up Ricky. There I was able to meet up with Jeff, who had arrived a bit earlier that morning and was waiting while the rest of his party flew in from other areas of the country. He had brought all the Program Books and finished CDs with him, and I would take them in my car to have them ready for the Cocktail Hour. While I was admiring the finished Program Book and complimenting Jeff, Ricky arrived. We all proceeded to my car and loaded the books and CDs into the back seat (which I would later come to regret). Ricky had packed lightly, only bringing a rolling backpack. As Jeff went back to wait for his other folks, Ricky and I proceeded to make our way northward, to enjoy what we knew was going to be an unforgettable weekend.

Our fun started long before we caught sight of the Cirque tent.

But that’s another tale.