To Pit Or Not To Pit
So far, the information we’ve got about the stage for the Madonna World Tour 2012 were not heading all in the same direction.
One of the first maps that surfaced on the ticketing websites and/or on the official websites for the various venues was the one for the HP Pavilion in San Jose that we showed you on Tuesday (see it again here). It had a very interesting set-up, a huge V-shaped catwalk, and made fans instantly rave about chances to have again some sort of pit in the layout.
The excitement did not last for long, because the information coming from Tel Aviv – when in an early morning press conference Shuky Vice, Madonna’s Israeli producer, gave some details into Madonna’s up coming world tour – showed us a very detailed visualisation of the stage that they will build in the Ramat Gan stadium that was nothing like the one from San Jose (check it out again here).
Other European venues and in particularly Murrayfield in Edinburgh showed a similar stage design with the long central catwalk and a big, rounded central satellite stage.
What was wrong? Speculation started immediately, and sometimes was also fun. “The San Jose stage was from Kylie’s Aphrodite Tour!”. “No, that’s for the brand new Lady Gaga show that has been announced!”.
A couple of days later with have some facts, and some more hints.
During the pre-sale for the North American dates of the tour, the first row of blocks on the floor seemed to have disappeared.
In some venue maps those blocks were painted in grey just as the blocks behind the stage, like in the Ticketmaster plan for the TD Garden in Boston that you see below. In other maps, they were just erased from the drawing.
Were they reserved for VIP packages? Why they seemed impossible to get in any presale?
Speculation went on, and then, the following map appeared.
It’s the one for the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and it is virtually identical to the one for San Jose!
Both files – before we pimped them up with some MDNA-themed decorations – clearly showed the Madonna name and date on them, so it could not be a mistake.
And if you look at it closely, you will notice that the big V-shaped catwalk goes right up to the end of the first line of floor blocks.
So what does this mean? Is this really the Madonna stage? And does this mean that the North American shows, that happen mostly indoors, will have a different stage layout?
If there was any reason to believe so, from a designer’s point of view, that the very strong resemblance of those seat maps to the way the Super Bowl stage appeared during the “Give Me All Your Luvin'” performance, with the new “M” logo of Ellenic descent generating an entire pattern of triangle-based shapes up to the pitch.
Was that a coincidence? Maybe, or maybe not, but the latest update is even more thrilling.
In a chat with the customer service at VIPNation our Community member livefromuk asked if they had any information on the stage setup, and the woman he talked to confirmed that she had the seating chart in front of her and that in the centre was a GA Pit!
And if you look carefully at the Boston map, there is indeed a GA PIT mentioned in the prices key map, although there is nothing in that colour in the plan.
Later on, an email from VIPNation rained on the Triber’s parade as they stated that they will not be selling any GA pit tickets and they do not believe there will be a GA pit on this tour.” Mumble mumble.
So true or false? Is that really a 1,278 sqft pit? And is there a same stage design for stadiums and arenas or (finally!) two different ones?
What is certain is that there is something we are not able to understand yet, and hopefully someone will shed some light on it as soon as possible!
