Join the circus

No-one would deny that Cirque du Soleil is in a class of its own when it comes to performance art, but the show requires more than fearless contortionists, outrageous costumes and a bewitching theme tune to bring it to life, reveals Nakheel Retail's head of leisure and entertainment Brett Judd.

As the April issue of Leisure Manager went to press, worldwide entertainment phenomenon Cirque du Soleil was nearing the end of its month-long staging of Alegria in Dubai. Held in partnership with Nakheel, the spectacle took place inside Cirque's famous Grand Chapiteau, or Big Top, at Ibn Battuta Mall.

The four-week tour - which Nakheel estimates to have attracted 100,000 people as Quidam did before it in 2007 - was preceded by months of planning and organisation, headed up by Nakheel Retail head of leisure and entertainment Brett Judd.

Hailing from Australia, Judd has been in the entertainment industry for 15 years, beginning his career in the field of core ticketing applications for a company called Ticketek. Having advanced to the role of general manager, Judd moved to Hong Kong, where he set up a joint venture between Ticketek and the Hong Kong government and was involved with the organisation of major events, from the Olympic Games to the Commonwealth Games.

"That was the leap frog into Cirque," says Judd. "We were providing ticketing services through our company and when Cirque du Soleil was coming to the Middle East, they looked around for someone to manage the commercial side of the show for them - ticket sales, commercial hospitality, raising sponsorship money, etc - and there really wasn't any was infrastructure in the region at that stage to accommodate that, particularly for electronic ticketing, so they called us to give them a hand," he explains.

And so Judd moved to Dubai to work on Quidam in 2007, which at that stage was promoted by Retailcorp under the Nakheel brand, and he took up his current role in July 2008, which also includes overseeing the development of Nakheel's cinema complex business, Grand Cinema.

With one show already under his belt for Cirque, Judd was confident of the success of Alegria, even though it ran for three weeks less than Quidam.

"I think Cirque has now established itself enough and I think as a consequence of the success of Quidam, and the other work that's being done with the resident show on Palm Jumeirah, the Cirque brand is now more well-known and better understood in this part of the world," says Judd.

But, while the challenge of raising consumer awareness may have been lessened second time around, this year's hosting of Cirque du Soleil faced a new threat - the worldwide economic crisis and the resulting market volatility in Dubai.

Quieter bars and restaurants reflect the fact that consumers are being more careful with their money, so Judd says that ticket pricing was "really considerate of what's happening in the market place at the moment".

"We have a number of different price categories inside the venue, so we can accommodate for someone who wants the VIP area and we can accommodate for someone who's on a tighter budget," says Judd.

As well as offering alternative pricing - including a two-for-one offer at certain times when tickets were bought face-to-face at Ibn Battuta Mall and a 20% discount when four or more tickets were bought for specific shows - Nakheel also developed its own web-based ticketing system. Indeed, back flicks, trapeze artists and comic clowns aside, where Cirque really sets itself apart in Dubai's entertainment industry is in what happens behind the scenes, with online ticketing for example.

Developed by Nakheel with Cirque the electronic ticketing platform gives consumers full freedom and control over their choice of seat within the Big Top.

"Every seat is a reserved seat, the customers who buy first get the benefit of the best seat," says Judd, adding that most events in Middle East are those with general admission rather than reserved seats.

"We have to make sure that people are sitting in the right areas, and to have that fully electronic automated ticketing system there's a fairly significant investment to be made and there's a lot of experience needed to manage that," says Judd.

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