On 21 September we were all invited by my former boss, Li Aiqing, President of Beijing State-Owned Management Co., Ltd. to a performance in the Bird’s Nest – a project we worked on together.
We were picked up outside of the stadium and then driven inside, through the service road that goes around the stadium on the inside. We then met Mr. Li in a VIP room.
We had a very nice view on the show. OK, for us, spoiled brats having seen so many of those shows, we saw a bit too many of the familiar features, like all that flying in the air. That flying stuff started well before the Olympics, and was part of the opening show of a large athletics event.
A lot of dazzling technical stunts, with water jets, a swimming pool, and so on. But the distance to the audience is a bit too much to clearly see the actors.
Obviously the stadium is still struggling to survive, as I had predicted. A lack of mass sports, as well as a lack of a really professional operator are not making things easy. And the only soccer team in town went back to Workers Stadium, next door for me.
Interesting was to see the (real!) moon slowly emerge in front of us and be an unexpected part of the show.
China Daily gave some comments on the show, see extracts:
“Outdoor attraction” dated 27 September 2013
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2013-09/27/content_16997963.htm
A show tailored for the Beijing National Stadium turns the venue into a huge wonderland — flying men fighting in the sky like Spider-Man, mermaids dancing in the pool and snow falling through a colorful cloud.
The ongoing large-scale outdoor show, Attraction, combines music, dance, acrobatics and technology.
It’s the second year running for the resident show.
Attraction tells a romantic love story between a human and the goddess of nature. A devil, who is envious of their love, tries to break them up by tempting the human but her efforts fail.
Attraction is “a visual feast combining performances on air, land and water. It’s China’s O show.”
Before the show, the production team visited Las Vegas to watch the O show by Cirque du Soleil. It’s easy to identify O show’s influence from the aquatic performance, stage design and acrobatics. But Bird’s Nest is a larger venue and open-air.
The dancing mermaids are from China’s national synchronized swimming team. More than 10 flying men fighting in the air for about five minutes — the most thrilling part of the one-hour show — are martial artists from a martial arts school in Henan province.
Five LED screens around the stage create the different vivid backdrops for the show, such as cascading waterfalls and a scene of a metropolis.
As the main venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Bird’s Nest has to deal with common problems facing other Olympic venues in cities across the world — generating profit to sustain the tens of millions of yuan in expenses every year.
“The Bird’s Nest is a legacy, but we have to admit it’s also a financial burden,” says Li Aiqing, president of BSAM and producer of the show.
“We want to build up the brand of the Bird’s Nest rather than just a venue for sports and tourism,” says Li.