THE BALLOON MAN

Big top goes up

Matt Tessenholtz works to rig working lights to one of four masts of the Big Apple Circus tent Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

 (Jason McKibben - jmckibben@poststar.com)
by JAMIE MUNKS — jmunks@poststar.com
from:  poststar.com
July 12, 2012
LAKE GEORGE — Circus performers are usually the ones in the spotlight, but Wednesday it was crew members who were central to the show.

The workers gathered beneath the vinyl tent Wednesday morning, preparing to hoist it at the edges with metal poles.


Heaving and grunting, they waited for Big Apple Circus Tent Master Michael LeClair’s instructions. When he gave the OK, they pushed the large blue poles up, raising the tent section by section.

The Big Apple Circus tent took shape in Charles R. Wood Park in preparation for 25 performances, which start Saturday and run through July 29. LeClair and his crew raised the tent Wednesday morning,

allowing the rest of the workers to set up the ring, the bandstand, seating, lighting and the sound system over the next few days.

“Once the tent is up, everyone else can go to work, basically,” LeClair said.

For LeClair, raising the tent before a stint in a new location — and then tearing it down afterward — are the moments he lives for.

A native of Quebec, LeClair was studying carpentry when he decided to join the circus, he said.

“I fell in love with the big top, and I never went back to college,” he said.

Straps resembling thick seat belts connected the tent to stakes in the ground. The straps pulled taut as crew members heaved from beneath the tent.

It takes several days to get everything set up. Once the crew got the vinyl tent erected, some of the technicians began climbing ladders to adjust cables to alleviate tension on the poles. Once that is done, the crew can stretch the vinyl to make sure it’s tight.

LeClair estimated the vinyl alone — without the tent’s side walls or the frame — weighs around 12,000 pounds.

He estimated the tent would be almost erected by the end of the day Wednesday. Then, the side walls could go on, enclosing it.

The tent is 42 meters across and rises 50 feet in the air. There are around 40 technicians who work together to set it up and tear it down.

The day for the crew starts at 9 a.m. and ends when the show is over, LeClair said.

Fewer than 24 hours after the circus came into town, a little village was created where the crew and performers will live for the next few weeks in trailers behind the tent.

Lake George officials hoped the circus would draw people out, especially during the post-holiday slump: the week after the Fourth of July is typically the slowest of the summer for the resort town.

Village Mayor Robert Blais will serve as the guest ringmaster for the first Lake George performance Saturday, circus spokesman Joel Dein said.

A small crowd gathered to watch the tent raising — something the circus performers and crew don’t usually see when they perform in places like New York City and Boston.

“There’s a long tradition of town people coming out for a tent raising,” General Manager Tom Larson said. “That’s shrinking, but we’re glad to see it when it happens — I think there was more of it in the old days when we had elephants.”