I’d forgotten how many of our most worn-out metaphors—okay, I’ll just say it, they’re clichés—are borrowed from the circus. Those of us who hold down jobs and raise children refer to ourselves as “jugglers.” When the pressure gets really intense, we say that we’re performing a “high-wire act.” Or that we feel we’ve been “shot out of a cannon.” And at those moments when life truly feels out of control—whether in an enjoyably madcap or a borderline psychotic way—we just come right out and call it a “three-ring circus.” I could go on. I’ll try not to.

I was reminded of all of this as I sat marveling at this morning’s performance of “Zing, Zang, Zoom,” the latest from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey (and my first experience ever, I might add, of “the Greatest Show on Earth®”). The first miraculous wonder? To this jaded New Yorker, it was how easily and quickly my sister, my husband and I and our two daughters, ages 6 and 4, were able to get from our parked car to our seats in the arena. The prospect of negotiating the crowds at Madison Square Garden for the same show in New York makes me queasier than the sight of the two acrobats jumping rope atop two enormous, rapidly revolving hamster wheels about two stories off the ground. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My daughters were quite unaware of the circus metaphors swirling around in their mother’s head. Their eyes grew steadily bigger as they watched lithe ladies dressed like butterflies swinging, flipping, and spinning from long white bed sheets (or so they appeared) suspended from the ceiling. They saw an elephant—one of the elephants they had watched eating a “brunch” of entire bunches of bananas and smashed watermelons only the day before—disappear before their eyes. They watched poodles and terriers “jump through hoops” (oops, there’s another one) and even saw a lucky group of volunteer kids from the audience levitate their parents. My husband claims he knows how this last trick was done. I’m all ears.

I think my favorite metaphor of the day was the appearance and ongoing mischief of Gravity—the clown who brings everyone down. I’m sure the poignancy of it escaped my kids’ notice. They just saw him as “the mean guy,” no different from Ursula the sea witch in “The Little Mermaid” or Maleficent in “Sleeping Beauty.” But I loved the idea of Gravity, with his team of Heavies, causing trouble at the circus—always present, lurking in the wings. When the scamp first appears, “Zingmaster” Alex (aided by the lovely Levitytia) tells him “there’s no place for Gravity at the circus!” And he’s right, to a point—the circus is all about defying rules and logic. Who in their right mind would go into a ring with a dozen Bengal tigers and yell at them until they dance on their hind legs and beg with no more dignity than the aforementioned poodles? But by the end, Alex realizes that Gravity does have a place at the circus. Without him and those pesky Heavies, where would be the wonder in all that high flying? The beauty of rules is, they’re breakable. Sometimes. (Don’t tell the kids.)

Speaking of defying rules, we broke our own at intermission. We told the girls before we went in that we weren’t going to be buying anything—no treats, no toys. The circus itself was treat enough. By intermission my sister had bought the girls two coloring books, my husband was happily shelling peanuts, and I was the proud possessor of a $9 lemonade (although, in my own defense, the flip-top bottle came with a two-year warranty). As old P.T. Barnum said, there’s a sucker born every minute.

Blogged by: Shannon Barr
Photos Courtesy of Feld Entertainment

This past weekend marked not only a celebration of America, but another Red, White and Boom! festival in our back parking lot. This year the talent was amazing, the rain was non-existent, and the entry was FREE! Between sets, we managed to catch up with Lexington’s own Laura Bell Bundy, one of the artists performing this year. Check out our interview with her below:

Rupp Arena Blog: What’s your favorite part about coming back to Kentucky. Obviously, you’re from here…

Laura Bell Bundy: Seeing my family and friends, and picking up my dog. Kentucky is the most beautiful place, and home to me. There is a sense of serenity that comes over me, that makes me just happy as soon as I arrive. Being able to come home and play my own music, is a crazy different, amazing experience. This is the first time I have played anything off this record here, and really any of my own music for that matter. I’ve done a Christmas concert at the Lexington Opera House, but that wasn’t really my own music. So this is all just super exciting for me!

RAB: How long have you been performing? As many probably know, you did broadway before this.

LBB: I came out of the womb and started dancing around! [laughs…] I started doing dance competitions when I was a little. I was four when I did my first Nutcracker with the Lexington Ballet at the Lexington Opera House. As for New York City, I did the Radio City Christmas Spectacular when I was nine.

RAB: What’s your favorite song to play live?

LBB: Today it was “Bourbon and Boys Give Me the Blues,” because it was the first time I have ever done it live. I really like “If You Want My Love,” and love performing “I’m No Good (For Ya Baby)” and “Proud Mary.” Actually, it’s safe to say I like them all.

RAB: What would you say has been the biggest moment of your career so far?

LBB: Probably singing at the ACM Awards. That, and being nominated for a Tony Award for Legally Blonde.

RAB: What dream artist(s) would you like to collaborate with?

LBB: I have so many artists I would love to work with, like Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. I would love to do a duet with Miranda [Lambert], since we are friends, and maybe Blake [Shelton]. I’m talking to Jake Owen about doing a duet with me.

RAB: Are there any outside of country music? Like Snoop Dogg, or Lady Gaga…

LBB: Beyonce would be a dream! Lady Gaga and Beyonce! [laughs…]

Our thanks goes out to Laura Bell Bundy for the interview, as well as everyone else for making Red, White and Boom! such an amazing day! We hope everyone enjoyed the music and fireworks! If you missed the show, or are interested in hearing more of Laura’s music, you can listen to the songs off her “Achin’ and Shakin’” album on her website, and purchase them through iTunes. Also, you can see Laura on October 1st at the Courthouse Plaza stage downtown for Spotlight Lexington.

With close to a million people coming through the doors of Rupp Arena each year, you can imagine that we sell quite a bit of food at our concession stands. Since another arena season has come to an end (June 2009 – June 2010), we decided to tally up all those hot dogs, ice cream cones, and other food and drink to give you some statistics, courtesy of our concessions manager. Enjoy!

During the 2009/2010 season at Rupp Arena events:

• 6,564,100 ounces of Coca Cola soft drinks were served, which is 51,282 gallons.
• 3,175 gallons of Flavorich soft serve ice cream were served.
• 655 kegs or 10,152 gallons of draft beer were consumed. The average 4 ft. deep, 12 foot wide above ground pool contains approximately 3,400 gallons.
• 1,010 gallons of Nacho Cheese were consumed.
• 2.8 tons of Nacho Chips were consumed.
• 4.8 tons of popcorn were consumed.
• 108.6 miles of Ball Park Franks and Hillshire Farms Polish Sausage served. That’s three round trips from Lexington to Georgetown.

On March 25th, Disney on Ice came to town and we could not pass up the chance to see the show. So I surprised my daughter and son with tickets and off we went to Rupp Arena. Let me start by saying I have not been to Disney World in 7 years so I was curious to see what the show had in store for us. Boy was I impressed!! We had such a great time! From the minute we entered Rupp, the lobby was decked out in all that is Disney… from adorable snow cones to light-up princess wands. They even set up 2 small photo areas with Disney characters. Everyone was very polite and helped us to our seats.

The show was wonderful for kids especially because they skated to the climax of every well known princess story. Even Mickey, Minnie, & Goofy made an appearance. It kept the kids attention and the skaters interacted with the audience when possible. I personally loved the creative skating and the wonderful costumes!! It was a lot of fun! I can also report there were no falls on the ice. The only complaint I have is that it was not a longer show. I could have watched it 10 more times. As a matter of fact, we are planning our trip to Disney this summer… the kids won’t stop talking about it!

Blogged by: Ana Crane-Simpson
Photography by: Paul Hooper (unless stated otherwise)

This was no ordinary hunt. We weren’t tracking quail on a farm or clicking plastic Nintendo guns at ducks bouncing around the TV. This was a hunt for the ‘Now Generation,’ involving Facebook, Twitter, and a willingness to decipher clues to get a pair of tickets to one of the hottest shows this year. After being given the chance to do a fun giveaway for Black Eyed Peas tickets, we decided to engage our social media followers, who tend to interact with us on a daily basis. It was a nice way to reward them, while giving them something fun to do. While free tickets are free tickets, who wouldn’t want to decipher a clue, race your peers, and find a hidden pair? It’s much more exciting and satisfying than getting them in the mail.

The general locations were picked: (2) Pair at University of Kentucky, (2) Pair at Eastern Kentucky University, (1) Pair at Transylvania University, and (1) Pair in Winchester, KY. It was a broad enough radius to test the waters, and narrow enough to be able to do it in two afternoons.

EKU was the first location on the schedule. We decided to hide them on the back of a marble bench in a courtyard with a fountain. The clue was “First pair of Black Eyed Peas tickets hidden behind one of these benches near the fountain at EKU. First to find them, gets them,” attached to a photo of the set of benches. While the location in relation to the bench was specific, which set of benches was the challenge. The courtyard was lined with around 12 sets of almost identical benches. It didn’t take long though, before someone tracked them down and snagged the envelope taped to the back. For the second location at EKU, we headed to The Ravine, an outdoor stone and grass amphitheater located in a high-traffic area. We wedged the tickets under a branch in one of the trees, and took a photo which obviously showed the tickets in the foreground, and a bit of the stage in the background. Using the photo, and the vague clue (”Second pair of Black Eyed Peas tickets are in a tree in the Ravine at EKU.”), people had to figure out which tree had the stage in the background, then hunt down where the tickets were located on that tree. Students began filing out of nearby dorm buildings with cell phone in hand, scouring the grounds for the mysterious tree that housed the tickets. It wasn’t long before someone snagged them from their spot.

The next morning, we headed to Winchester, KY in search of a spot to hide the tickets. We found the Leeds Theatre, a recognizable classic in downtown Winchester, and tucked the tickets away behind a column on the outside of the building. It wasn’t hard to see the tickets in the photo, but was more of a foot race to see who could get there to claim them first. The beauty of social sites is that there is always someone in the area and checking Facebook or Twitter, so not long after we left the Theatre, someone came and grabbed them.

With Winchester done, we hit the road to head back to Lexington and to the Transylvania University campus. After a quick walk around, we found The Kissing Tree, a famous big tree on campus with a bench going around it. We pointed people to the exact location, but not where it was hidden. Before long we saw someone jogging toward the tree, with a huge grin on her face. With help with a couple friends, they began kicking around dirt, looking on the tree and under the bench. Haydon’s search paid off when one of her friends spotted the ticket envelope taped in the back under one side of the bench.

After a short drive, we arrived at UK’s campus, easily the most active of the ticket locations. As we began to walk around, classes let out so there were lots of students roaming around campus, ready for the hunt. We stopped in the White Hall Classroom Building and managed to find an empty classroom (the kind that seats around 300 people). We found a random seat, pulled the fold-up table out, taped the tickets to the bottom, then folding it back down. As soon as the tickets were taped we sent out our clue, along with a photo of the entrance to the building: “1st pair Black Eyed Peas tix, room 106 row G of classroom building at UK.” Within 30 seconds of sending it out, people already started to come into the classroom and search up and down row G. We dodged out of sight as to not reveal ourselves. When we swung back by the entrance, there were easily 10 or 12 people searching every seat in row G. Nate was talking to someone on his phone who was on Facebook and happen to be at the right place at the right time. He was the first to the scene and first to find the tickets.

We didn’t have a specific place in mind for the last pair of tickets, so we started wandering around campus. Eventually we found a staircase in the back of a building that looked promising. We planned to tape the last pair of tickets on the support pole facing the building. We waited as people passed by, poised to tape them up when the coast was clear. One person caught on to us and was watching what we were doing, so we had to abort the location, and flee to another spot. We got back in the car, drove around campus some more, and then found a nice home for the tickets underneath a bridge connected to one of the buildings. We stashed the ticket envelope underneath a drain pipe, and then watched from afar as someone looked under the bridge and claimed the tickets.

Although the hunt is over for now, we definitely learned a lot from this and plan to do it again for more events in the future. Thanks to everyone who participated in finding the tickets, commenting on Facebook and Twitter, and being fans/followers of Rupp Arena in the first place. We can’t ever thank you enough for you support. Also, thanks to AEG for hooking us up with tickets to give away in the first place.

We will be back for other shows, and go to more places. The fun has just begun…

My family and I attended the 7pm performance of Sesame Street Live at Rupp Arena on Friday night, and I’m most pleased to report that my son (who just turned five) really enjoyed the program, as did my wife, along with our 5 month old baby in tow (who was mesmerized by the colorful production and never let out a squeal). After yet another week lost to the stresses of the workplace and rushing from points A to B, how refreshing it was to watch the pure delight on our child’s face as his favorite characters came to life on stage! Tonight was true quality time together and a memory we will hold onto for years to come.

This live stage show of the iconic TV program has an amazing 30 year run, and what really connected me was remembering that 35 years ago in 1974, I was a five year old watching these same characters and singing many of the same songs! The messages are timeless; love and support your friends and family, work together to achieve a common goal, believing in the power of your dreams and wondering what you might like to be when you “grow up” (great question that I actually started to ponder while sitting in the audience at age 40!) ……I’m glad a new generation of kids are hearing this, and that my son was one of them in the audience!

The show was about an hour and a half, with a 15 minute intermission, so it was just right for little attention spans (both young and old!) Hardcore Elmo fans will not be disappointed, as he has a breakout in the program of the essential “Elmo’s World” styled exactly as the TV program. Newer characters like Abby Cadabby, Telly Monster and Baby Bear mix in seamlessly with veterans Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert and Oscar the Grouch, who shows up like a crusty old friend from the past to steal the show.

Here’s hoping that “Sesame Street Live” tours for another 30 years and thanks to Rupp Arena for bringing them to the children of Lexington and the Bluegrass! If you are looking for a great family activity this weekend for the Kindergarten and under crowd, you really can’t go wrong with Sesame Street Live! The best part of all is that today I’m a hero with my 5 year old for taking him to the show…typically, I have to do something really cool (like catching fireflies on a summer night) to warrant such a title. What a great start to the weekend!

Guest Blogged by: Doug High
Photos by: Doug High

Scarefest starts today at the Lexington Center. We went down and did a quick walk through of the exhibit hall before it opened up and took the camera with us. Check out the video below (click here to watch in high definition) to see a quick rundown of the setup from this year. For more information on Scarefest, visit their website by CLICKING HERE.

Cue the spooky music… [presses play]… much better. The ScareFest Horror and Paranormal Convention is back at the Lexington Center this September 11th through 13th! Many may remember last year (it’s first year), which was very successful and hosted a lot of celebrities and exhibitors involved with horror and the paranormal. Although last year set the bar high, this year will push it even higher! Hit the jump to see a list of some of the celebrities coming to the event.

Horror Guests

Doug Bradley (Pinhead – Hellraiser Series)
Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface – Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, E.T. & Cujo)
Danielle Harris (Halloween 4 & 5, Rob Zombie’s Halloween 1 & 2)
Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead)
Leslie Easterbrook (Police Academy Series & The Devil’s Rejects)
Priscilla Barnes (Threes Company & The Devil’s Rejects)
Kane Hodder (Jason – Friday The 13th VII, VIII, Jason Goes to Hell & Jason X)
Robert Kurtzman (Special FX – Scream, Army of Darkness & Hostel)

Paranormal Guests

Zak Bagans (”Travel Channel’s” Ghost Adventures)
Nick Groff (”Travel Channel’s” Ghost Adventures)
Aaron Goodwin (”Travel Channel’s” Ghost Adventures)
Bill Birnes (The History Channel’s UFO Hunters)
Chip Coffey (World Famous Psychic & Medium)
Patti Starr (Certified Ghost Hunter & Author)
John Zaffis (Demonologist and Paranormal Researcher)
Chris Moon (Paranormal Researcher)
Michelle Belanger (Author, Expert of the Occult)

Every now and then we like to poll our readers/fans/followers to see who they would like to see come to Rupp Arena. It gives us a good idea of what the demand is for certain artists/acts and tells us to keep an ear to the ground for when they are routing their tour. So, we want to know who you want to see! As a little extra incentive, next Monday (August 10th) we will choose a random commenter here, on Facebook, and on Twitter and each will win a Rupp Arena Blog tshirt. So take a second and hammer out some of your favorite bands/shows that are currently touring, planning a tour, or may tour at some point in the future. You never know, they may end up hitting the stage here at Rupp!

This morning at 10:00am, we officially announced that Smackdown & ECW Live TV will be coming to Rupp Arena on October 13th. This will be a double-header event, both being taped to be aired on TV later. Currently, the lineup includes Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, Kane, CM Punk, Christian, The Great Khali, Tommy Dreamer, Melina, and Michelle McCool. There will be more people announced later, and those announced are subject to change, but it looks like a solid group of people for a long night of wrestling.