The first visible sign of the arrival of Cirque du Soleil and its latest live production KOOZA in the city of Seattle, is the raising of the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) and the set up of the Cirque du Soleil Village. This event took place at King County's Marymoor Park this afternoon where a team of 60-plus men and women hoisted more than 100 steel poles from the ground up.

About the white Grand Chapiteau and the Cirque du Soleil Village:

• The Grand Chapiteau stands 56 feet high and is 164 feet in diameter.
• The 4 masts stand at 82 feet tall each.
• 550 pegs are required to hold the Grand Chapiteau firmly to the 180,000 square feet of asphalt.
• The Grand Chapiteau can accommodate more than 2,500 people.
• The entire site set-up includes installation of entrance, hospitality and rehearsal tents, box office, administrative offices, kitchen and school.
• Just like a village the site is completely self-sufficient for electrical power and relies only on a local water supply and telecommunication facilities to support its infrastructure.
• The Grand Chapiteau, the Tapis Rouge and Artistic tents are all climate control with air conditioning in warm season or heating for colder season.
• KOOZA travels city to city via 59 trailers carrying more than 775 tons of equipment for the tour.

Since the creation of Cirque du Soleil in 1984
Some facts on what it represents in Grand Chapiteau raising:

• Cirque du Soleil has set up its Grand Chapiteau all over the world over 430 times since 1984.
• While the first Grand Chapiteau could seat 800 people, the current ones seats around 2,500 guests.
• Since 1984, the Cirque du Soleil infrastructure has traveled over 6, 5 millions miles all over the world by plane, by boat, by train and by truck (over 10,000 miles for KOOZA only!).
• Over the past 25 years, it took 20,000 trucks to haul the touring infrastructure.
• Cirque du Soleil has used 14 Grands Chapiteaux since 1984, 6 of which are still in use today.
• In 25 years, over 213 300 square feet of canvas have gone into the production of Grands Chapiteaux, excluding all the other tents on the site. Interesting fact about the used canvas, since 2005, some of it has been turned into Grand Chapiteau messenger bag.

As part of the Cirque du Soleil Village, a box office will be set up at the front of the Grand Chapiteau. As of Wednesday, June 2 between 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., tickets for KOOZA may be purchased in person.

Please note: Box office regular hours are from 3 hours prior to show time to 30 minutes after beginning of show. It is closed on Mondays. Tickets can also be purchased at King County's Marymoor Park, by phone at 1 800 450-1480 or online at cirquedusoleil.com/kooza.

Performance schedule: Tuesdays to Thursdays at 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. No performances on Mondays.