Dropped by with kiddos yesterday for echo. For cirque du soleil, it is relatively a small but intimate tent. Stage is small also. The small tent allows close interactions with audience. The visual effect from the box gave out an unique twist for cirque du soleil. Music is great as usual. The visual is always fantastic. Performers are all excellent. It was a great experience overall. read more

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We just saw "Echo". Very entertaining and nothing like previous shows with the glitz of the glamour. Mostly acrobatics and juggling but none like we've ever seen before! Parking is 30 dollars in a big lot. It's a lot better than it was some years back when it was muddy, uneven, and hazardous. They've smoothed it out and added gravel but it's still dusty so you'll need a car wash soon after. No cash to park - cards only. I like that they have security scanners and the restrooms are outside but plenty to not have to wait to long during the 25 minute intermission. I bought two waters and a bag of popcorn - $29.00. Therefore, I understand why there were quite a few empty seats. If you are fortunate enough to go during this economy, enjoy the terrific show! read more

Saw Echo. Overall was very good an entertaining. Some of the performers were amazing seeing their athleticism. Visually stimulating and a worthwhile show to see. I have seen a few of these and this one lacked telling a story which would have made it better. It was just one random act after another, they werent really tied together or if they were or actually told a story I had no clue what it was but we enjoyed it. Tips. Dont sit in the first 5 rows you need to be back a bit to see better. Even in the far back are good seats its not a big venue. If you can park nearby and walk you will save $30 for parking which its ridiculous. Everything was so pricey. Beer $20. Popcorn $13.00, Yikes! read more

Awesome show! Always have enjoyed the cirque. I can see that there is not as many thrills as years past probably due to injuries and so forth but regardless the cirque is very artistic and it shows. The artist show their talent and strength and it's very cool to watch! read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

I was just here this weekend to see Echo. Yet another outstanding Cirque Du Soleil production. Funny, awe-inspiring, and spectacular. I would see it again if I could. Two thumbs up. Note that the prices have a wide range, but the auditorium is pretty small, and the view from all seats are likely pretty good. read more

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ECHO! Omg! Just saw this show and gotta say best Cirque Du Soleil ..The acrobats, the athletic abilities are off the charts on this one. Stunning! The story line had meaning and kept us engaged with the characters. Have to say the clowns in this one are amusing, entertaining and yes ..funny! I am a complete fan ;-) read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

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Great cinema with a comfortable atmosphere and excellent sound quality. The seats are clean and cozy, and the staff is friendly and helpful. I especially liked how organized everything was, from ticket purchase to entering the hall. Definitely a place I'd visit again. read more

When my daughter went into the wrong door in downtown san jose with my granddaughter they made her wait until intermission to get in. Not at this location. They let people in an hr late so we had to be inconvenienced and had to stand up to let them in because they couldn't be bothered to get there on time and their seats were in the center of the isle. Also I let them know I couldn't climb stairs and I was told that it was my only option which wasn't true. They had a separate entrace for people with disabilities but I'll bet because I'm obese they weren't giving me that option. Then even after intermission people still came in 20 minutes late and yet again we had to stand up to let them in. The singers were a huge distraction. It's like the show wanted everyone to get equal spotlights and attention. They just sang while the acrobatics went on and it gave off the vibe that they wanted everyone to know how talented they were. There were signs and they also announced we could take pics without flash only and no video was to be taken and to dim your phone lights YET no one enforced the rule and literally every 4th person around me was taking video. The lights from phones was so distracting along with having to tand up to let people in all uring the performance. But they got their money which I guess the bottom line for them. I expected more from them and the performance was meh at best. I have wanted to see this show for over 10 years but I WILL NEVER ATTEND ANOTHER ONE! read more

Cirque Du Soleil: Echo was an awesome experience! What a great show of human athleticism, acrobatics and interpretive dance/theater. Outstanding performance and fun for the whole family! read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Final curtain call - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

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Bravo! An immersive performance that will put you in awe for what human beings can do esp the contortionist. Oh the performers doing acrobatics were delightful to watch. You smile. Well all the performers were amazing. The clowns were so fun going around the audience. Glad we went as the tent was a nice size ; better than a Vegas arena. And the bathrooms were plentiful and clean. read more

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We loved this Cirque Du Soleil- Echo. We have been seeing cirque du soleil for decades. The bad reviews were due to the food! The acts were all amazing. The clowns were so funny and talented. The live musics complemented the show. The costumes were beautiful. The parking is $30. There were lots of employees to make the event easy. Lot of parking attendants, lots of ushers, lots of organized lines for the bathroom. The port a potties were clean and had sinks. I do agree would be better to be above the first 5 rows and central to the stage. There is so much going on. read more

Echo was beautiful & wonderful to watch just for entertainment. Well worth the price. Easy to get to& parking great. Even to leave was easy, no bottleneck of traffic as usual from other venues. read more

Spectacular, spectacular. No words in the vernacular! The wife and I were fortunate to see VOLTA in San Jose on its opening night. What an awesome show! VOLTA is Cirque du Soleil's 41st production. The show combines music, acrobatics, theater and comedy in a story about extreme sports and one man's journey to find himself. The performers were very talented and made incredible feats look effortless, and yes, a couple performers messed up a couple times, but nonetheless the audience was clearly wowed by every act. The circular stage design allowed for great vantage points from all angles, and the lighting and visual effects were expertly done. Altogether, a very impressive show. I'm not sure if it was just because it was the opening night, but free light hor d'oeuvres, champagne and popcorn were being served. There was also a VIP tent that I'm sure had swankier amenities, but I'll never know. Parking was $20 and the parking lot looked like a madhouse, but the wife and I found street parking nearby and walked over. Just observe the posted hours, as the street we were on had signs saying no parking after 10pm, but the show ended around 10:20. VOLTA runs in San Jose from Feb 13 - Mar 24, so don't miss your chance to see this show before it leaves town. read more

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Cirque du Soliel is my favorite show. I've seen about 6 of the Vegas shows and see all of the traveling shows every year. I even saw the Broadway show. Although Volta was a spectacular feat of acrobatics, music and unbeatable visuals, it didn't have much new. Yes the storyline, music and cast of characters were new but the performances were mostly similar to some previous show. I guess after 10 - 15 years you run out of new tricks. The new item this year was the woman being swung around by her hair. I won't spoil the detail but you will be impressed. Of course if this I your first Cirque du Soliel show your mind will be blown. Don't mistake Cirque XYZ as a Cirque du Soliel show. Just because it has Cirque in the name doesn't make it CDS. You will see world class acts in every stunt. I found the parking to be horrible but perhaps I tried to enter from the wrong direction. I waited in a line of cars for 20 minutes, and ended up parking across the street in a lot that turned out to be for a Mexican concert. It was $15 and I just had to do a daredevil act crossing Tully so that might have been the best option. It was literally across the street from the best entrance for our seats. The best thing about this was the concert was still going strong when we got out so there was absolutely no traffic exiting!! You definitely need to get on Google maps and research because the info they sent only gave details for public transit. So if you've never been to a Cirque show this will blow your mind. If you've been to 5 or more you May feel like you've seen some acts before (ok maybe I'm down to 3.5 stars now). Something new at this one was that they allow you to take pictures now!! No video, flash or removable lens cameras of course. Ok back to 4 now. read more

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Cirque shows are always great! The deets: + As of 3/10, if you attend they are offering 30% any of the remaining shows in SJ. +/- Parking in fairgrounds adjacent lots are $20. The Fairgrounds needs to resurface the lot - there are a lot of potholes. + Close to local breweries - A bit out of the way (2+ miles) from downtown + $12 popcorn with a refill. :) + These shows never disappoint, definitely a great live performance. These athletes are talented!! read more

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Went to the preview night and I have to say, the performance was great! I've seen numerous performances but aside from O in Vegas, Volta is my favorite so far especially locally. Performance aside, there were several hiccups. Parking is $20 which seemed really high considering the parking situation was a nightmare. Lot was flooded from the rain, no parking attendants helping to direct traffic so getting in and especially out was a nightmare. Concessions was comical. $10 for chips and cheese? $7 for an itty bitty hot dog? And when I ordered two glasses of Cabernet. I was given 2 glasses of Chardonnay. When I let the woman know that I ordered Cabernet, she apologized and gave us Champaigne. When I again told her that was not what I ordered, she want back to the fridge and pulled out the chardonnay again. Then my daughter told her the Cabernet is a red wine. She again opened the fridge and I explained that red wine would not be in the fridge and that's when the look of complete confusion took over and she disappeared. Eventually she did come back and poured two glasses of CABERNET. Phew! Buuuuut one was the right size pour and the other was WAY below the fill line on the small plastic cup. Are you kidding me??? I again asked her to please fill it to the line because $12 for a small pour of cheap wine better come to the fill line. Right??? Okay, let's talk about seating. It's TIGHT! I mean seriously folks. You better not be pregnant or over 100 lbs because if you are, you will be spilling over into the seat beside you. And it was warm. But that could have just been me ... the wine ... and the fact that there were some really REALLY handsome men on stage who weren't wearing shirts. ha! Would I recommend this to a friend? YES! The performance was a lot of fun. Would I UBER there? YES! Should you pregame before arriving? YES! I totally get that there are always kinks to work out before hand so I get that. But there's no need to overcharge for parking and then no hire parking attendants to direct traffic. And your concessions folks who are selling beer and wine should know the difference between red and white. Just sayin ... read more

We got there early and chose not to park in the parking lot because we didn't want to get stuck in the traffic jam leaving after the show. The show was fantastic! The only issue was a guy sitting behind me who kept whistling so loud. It was like someone screeching in my ears. My hubby was horribly bothered more than me. I turned around and asked him to stop and he said NO. I said it affects some peoples hearing. He could care less. What an A......!! He was with his little kids and his wife. My husband overheard him talking about his son who has some hearing issues. He took a different approach and engaged in talking to him. He politely asked him if he would not whistle and he said he would stop. Well it worked because he didn't make annoying sounds the rest of the show. read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

Last show will be on the 24th, Sunday. So if you want to see it, better go soon. You are allowed to bring in your own water and food, as long as the liquid is in an unopened, sealed bottle. I'm not that big into the standard, pricey theater fare of candy, cotton candy, pretzels, hot dogs, beer, nachos, and popcorn. So we went to 85C before this and picked up some of their cheese dog breads as a hotdog substitute, cause you still have to have that hot dog at a circus. XD If you're getting something there though, popcorn gets free refills. However, please note that you're discouraged from leaving during the performance and they'll stop you from returning to your seat if you try to come back in the middle of an act. As a result, you're only going to be able to get that refill so many times. Bathrooms/Porta potties are out front, so you'll need to go through the concession tent if you need to use it in the middle of the show. Finally, be aware that they may need to put the show on hold if the weather turns bad. Volta is placed across the street from the part of the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds where the archway and most of the buildings are. Namely, it's where the large parking lot is. The tents specifically take up the western part of that lot with the eastern part still open for parking. It's $20 and you can still use the S 10th Street entrance. There will be some traffic, a bit of a line of cars, especially coming from Tully or Parrott St. However, we found that we could avoid most of the line by going onto S 7th Street, turning onto New Street, and THEN onto S 10th. We went 40 minutes early to look around and managed to get a pretty good parking spot close to Cirque. Overall actually, the parking was great. I thought it would take forever to get in and out of the lot, but both times we either found space or got out very shortly. Another thing to note. They offer seat upgrades for an extra $10 once you get there. I would recommend getting one of the lower tier seats and, if you want to take a chance, try for a $10 upgrade when you get there. You'll get a pretty good seat either way. We got yellow seats (tier below the red VIP seats) because we were really excited and were afraid we wouldn't be able to see. Once arrived, we realized that the overall tent really isn't that big. It's really not that bad and you'll probably get a decent view even if your seat is closer to the back. For our show, we all got to experience something special. Thirty minutes into Volta, it was suddenly announced the show would be put on hold due to bad weather conditions. Don't blame them in the least because it was clearly a matter of safety. Even as everyone was confused, the storm outside started going HARDER. Rain, lightning, and thunder pounded and echoed through the tent. Eventually, we were invited to go back into the larger lobby tent where people crowded the entranceways to watch the rain turn into hail. It was pretty exciting. The show resumed almost an hour later. According to the website, the show is supposed to be 2 hours and 15 minutes with a 25-minute intermission. After the hour-long break, they skipped intermission and a few acts to wrap up at 7:19 and prepare for their 8 o'clock show. That means of the 2 hours and 15 minutes show, we saw 1 hour and 24 minutes of it. Even more notable than the time though is that the story was choppy and disjointed. And that's disappointing because Volta is currently supposed to be THE Cirque du Soleil show that actually HAS a concrete storyline, as opposed to the other shows' more of open to translation takes. You obviously get that it's about a talented boy that went onto a talent TV show where his difference is revealed to the world and that there is a struggle between free spirits/embracing creativity and uniqueness versus the bland uniformity/apathy. However, this was all shortened to just the bigger acts. With it ending on the bike show, it didn't flow well and the conclusion was abrupt. Overall, I did like a lot of things. The staging was amazing, and I love how close we were. My absolute favorite act was the Acro-lamp because the silver lady (who also plays violin) provided the most haunting singing I've ever heard in real life that went stunningly well with the performance. A close second was the reflective dual act because I just thought the way the acrobats moved and how the light bent around them was amazing. Really regret not seeing the dance-off though. So we missed things and I have a lot to say about the storytelling (namely that if this is going to be the Cirque du Soleil with an actual storyline, it needs to have a cohesive ending), but it was all very beautiful. It's just that circumstances mean we only got a little more than half of the actual show and that people more excited by the hail. But again, that's not their fault. We didn't have the best experience nor the kind we hoped for, but it was a fun thing I got to do with my dad nevertheless. read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Stage - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

I LOVE Cirque du Soleil. I was first introduced to them in high school and have been hooked ever since. This was the first time I'd seen the Grand Chapiteau set up at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, so I wasn't sure what to expect. We decided to get there around 7:15 to figure out the parking situation and buy us some time to shop and look around a little before the show. The event parking was right next to the event location itself (it's one hugenormous parking lot, divided up for parking and the show), so that was nice and convenient. Parking was $20 (but for as long as I've known it, it's always been that pricey). Once we parked, it was a short walk over to the event tents. The lobby/shop area was expansive and roomy - shops, bars, and food set up on both sides of tent. Pretty standard. Going into the Grand Chapiteau was also the same experience of excitement and wonder as it always has been for me. We were in row AA on the side of the stage, so I was WAY excited. The stage lighting was all preset and ready to go and it was mesmerizing. I was expecting the clowns to come out as part of their preshow since they usually did, but that didn't happen. Once the show started, I was enthralled for the next several hours. The acts were fun, the performers were fantastic, the production value was all spectacular. There was one cringe-worthy act that I struggled sitting through that I refer to as the Hairealist, but even that was beautiful once you were able to get past the cringe-worthy aspect of the act. Loved it all, per usual & I recommend it to anyone looking to have a fun evening out! read more

This show was fantastic. Every seat is a good one, except for the ones by the back wall. The show was beautiful. There were a few slow parts, but they were still entertaining. Refreshments are incredibly expensive. a small popcorn and a sprite were $18. I suggest you bring your own snacks. Parking was $20 in the adjacent lot and was very convenient. Overall it was a wonderful evening. read more

Awesome show! I've been to several Cirque du Soleil shows and they are all impressive. This one didn't have much of a plot- there was one but it was a bit uneven- but the performers were amazing. I wasn't sure how the fairgrounds would be as a venue but it was fine. Parking lot is a mess of huge potholes and is $20 a car. I did VIP access and felt like it was worth the $. It gives you a lounge area with open bar (beer & wine) and light appetizers, a swag bag, etc. Fun event & perfect for a date night read more

The show itself is Amazing especially from the second row where we saw it. Many of the complaints about expensive concessions are valid, but this was also not like a movie theater if you wanted to bring food in you were more than welcome too. The only thing I didn't like about the Cirque itself is that I really with there were 20% less seats in the tent. I was really lucky and got to go with my mom who saw the original Cique tour and even she remarked that she felt that even the fairly expensive tickets we had felt less "premium" than they should have mainly because the rows were too close together. I'm only 5ft 11 and even my knees were almost touching the row in front of me. The main reason for the 4 star review is that honestly the fairgrounds blows, the staff that they had controlling traffic directed our obvious Lyft into the parking lot ( which is a dirty pot holed mess) instead of directing us to the taxi and ride share area directly in front of the tent. So 5 stars for the show and 2 for the fairgrounds ( pave your lot, anyone wearing heels is going to break an ankle walking around that place) read more

Great show, I been to different Cirques Du Soleil and they're all above my expectations! I really enjoyed This "Volta" show ‍‍. read more

Cirque Du Soleil - Performing Arts Near Me - San Jose, California

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If you really want to see the show, spend the X-tra $ for the better seats. Yes, it's entertaining. Yes, women love it. Yes, it's a money grab. 100 bucks for a "ok" seat. 20 bucks to park. 12 bucks for a popcorn. 12 bucks for a space dust adult drink. 90 minute show with a 25 minute intermission. Parking lot may be muddy. LSD or MDMA would be my suggestion to fully enjoy this show. Just say'n. read more

The show was fantastic but the access to the parking was horrible. We arrived at the corner of Tully and 7th at 7:20 pm and didn't make it into the tent til 8:10, missing the first 5 mins of the show. They really needed a traffic cop to help narrow the two lanes of traffic to one, help fold in the people turning from 7th. It was so stressful to be stuck, knowing we were missing part of the show. Cirque, please address this!!!!!! It really detracted from our overall experience. read more

The show was amazing! The performers really do a great job and keep audiences engaged.

The show was pretty good. I've seen numerous shows before and I would say that this didn't blow my mind but was still enjoyable. We splurged for the VIP Hennessy experience on VDay and that is where they lost stars. The alcohol was definitely free flowing, but the appetizers were scarce. They would send out one person every few minutes with a tray of 6-8 pieces on it. Then everyone had to be vultures to get anything. We asked for water and they said they would bring some out on a table and it never appeared. You would think with all the alcohol served that they would have water readily available... I really hope they have fixed these issues since our visit, otherwise just lower your expectations for their "VIP" experience. I do have to say the bar staff were excellent though so props to them. You get a book and imitation swell bottle as your gift. The book was cool, bottle is pretty much trash. read more