Kenneth Feld and his daughter Juliette pose for a photo inside the costume shop at Feld Entertainment Studios in Ellenton, Fla. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM ELLENTON, FLA. — As Feld Entertainment has grown, so has its global network of offices, promoters and performers. CEO Kenneth Feld is now bringing his empire under one roof with the opening of Feld Entertainment Studios, a massive office complex, rehearsal space and large scale production shop where his team works on every aspect of the company’s touring shows.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever had the company under one roof,” said Kenneth Feld during a walking tour of his 580,000-sq.-ft. facility on 43 acres of land in Florida’s Manatee County, just south of Tampa and north of Sarasota. The massive space includes a 50,000-sq.-ft rehearsal studio, plus huge industrial shops where circus train cars are retrofitted and repainted, 50 years of costumes are stored, and dozens of creative professionals add their personal touch to Feld’s portfolio of family entertainment shows.
“We have every person that deals with every aspect of our business here, and we constantly bring them in and ask their opinion,” he said. “It could be someone from motorsports, or the circus, or maybe someone from Creative Services. All of the sudden we’re hearing ideas that we might not have heard in the past and it benefits us from a creative standpoint, from a business standpoint and marketing — we hear from every aspect of the company. And it makes us a lot smarter.”
This model is being put to the test with Feld Entertainment’s new Marvel Universe Live show, “where we’ve brought in every discipline that we’ve ever known, into one production, that is by far the most complex production that we’ve ever attempted.”
To grasp Feld’s empire, one could look down the massive hallways of Feld Studios (some stretch 700 feet, over two football fields) or one could simply look up at the flat screen monitors in the facility’s touring department, each road unit symbolized with a small dot on a map. Feld officially has eight separate entertainment properties that it tours, but at any given time, 40 to 50 units could be on the road, spread out over 70 countries. Feld estimates his company stages about 5,000 performances a year, everything from Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus to Disney on Ice, Nuclear Cowboyz and Monster Jam.
While that gives you an idea of the scale Feld is working with, it doesn’t give you an intimate look at the man who built this sprawling empire. For that, you simply need to notice a small, framed picture in his lobby. It dates back a few years and features three young girls dressed as clowns. It takes only seconds to realize this is Feld’s family, his three beautiful daughters.
“Their first jobs,” Kenneth Feld says with a laugh as his youngest daughter joins the walking tour of the Ellenton facility. Juliette Feld is a producer for the family’s highly anticipated Marvel Universe Live show. Her sisters, Alana and Nicole Feld, are also producers and an integral component of both the Feld family and Kenneth Feld’s own story — a story that now includes a Cold War-era turbine factory.
The Story Behind the Studios
In May 2012, Kenneth Feld purchased the former Seimens industrial plant for $8.5 million, spending millions more to completely gut and rebuild the factory, and relocate his staff to Ellenton. While the exact age of the building is unclear, Scott Dickerson, VP of Florida Operations & Show Support and GM of Feld Studios, estimated the original facility was about 30 years old.
When his team took over the building in Spring of 2012, “it looked like a bomb had gone off. They had just left everything here — papers and computers and old furniture. The ceiling was coming in and there were walls falling down. It was really something.”
It took six months of construction before anyone could move in — first the ceiling was raised, then windows were added to bring in natural light. The first wave of 250 people were brought in, everyone from marketing to risk management. Fast forward to April 2014 and the office is home to about 400 employees.
Rehearsal Space
With its access to huge fabrications shops, design facilities and just about everything else a touring show would require, Feld Entertainment Studios is one of the largest fully integrated rehearsal and storage spaces in the world.
The crown jewel of the studio is a series of multipurpose production spaces where arena shows like Marvel Universe Live and Nuclear Cowboyz can rehearse. The studio’s 50,000-sq.-ft. South Hall includes a 90-foot-by-290-foot rehearsal floor with a massive 86-by-241-foot grid, sitting 55 feet above the ground and capable of holding a staggering 500,000-lbs. weight capacity. The second half of the South Hall includes a 22,900-sq.-ft. backstage space. The rehearsal space is lit with LED lighting and equipped with a state-of-the-art climate control system.
“In our old building we were restricted by height,” said Dickerson. “Now we have the height and a crane that we can hang from. We can get it exactly how it would look in a venue and we can properly assemble it, wire it and label it for lighting and sound.”
They can also rent it out — when Feld Entertainment Studios is not being used for Feld rehearsals, Kenneth Feld said he envisions touring rock shows utilizing the space for concert rehearsals or film productions. In March, ESPN shot a television commercial in the South Hall, which doubles as a professional sound stage.
“We’re doing the largest shows in the world, so if we can rehearse here satisfactorily, production fits the criteria for everyone else,” Kenneth Feld said. “We’re not rehearsing 52 weeks a year, so when we’re not using the facility, other companies can use the space to rehearse or shoot commercials.”
Marvel Universe Comes Alive
Before Marvel Universe’s collection of superheroes and villians is brought to life, they must first endure an existence at one-inch-scale.
“Our objective with white model testing is to find and troubleshoot as many things as possible before we get into rehearsals because that time is too precious,” said Juliette Feld, standing over a one-inch scale version of the Marvel Universe Live! show.
The scale not only includes the arena floor and backstage spaces, but also a scaled model of the show’s impressive grid system, complete with mock catwalks and dressing rooms, “a backstage in the sky” as Juliette Feld likes to call it.
“This is by far the most complex production we have ever attempted,” said Kenneth Feld. “For this show, we’ve brought in every discipline we’ve ever known.”
“And some we haven’t,” joked daughter Juliette Feld, in response.
Interviewed for this story: Kenneth and Juliette Feld and Scott Dickerson, (941) 721-1233