It has been five years in the making, but for the first time, audience members will get to experience Sphere in all its glory on Friday night.
The venue can hold up to 20,000 people, and it’s the world’s largest spherical structure, at 516 feet wide and 366 feet tall.
It will be used for live music acts like the U2 concert on Friday night, and film and special sporting events. It contains an immersive display plane that wraps up over and around the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment.
The entire experience is designed to program four out of the five senses that sight, sound, touch and smell. So if you’re watching a film about oranges, Executive Chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment Co., Jim Dolan says you can make the venue smell like oranges.
Frank DiLella sat down with Dolan to talk about building the Sphere in Las Vegas rather than in New York City.
“Vegas is really kind of the perfect market for a project like this, first time. Vegas is a very welcoming market to new ideas, right? They love light in Las Vegas and this whole project is a lot of it is about light. The inside, the outside, etc. They have no objections to that. The government here is very encouraging. They want you to be successful. The marketplace has over 50 million people that come through it in a year. So there’s plenty of audiences to see your product. And all-in-all, I know I think this was the right market to start it. We’ve learned a ton here and we’re ready to go to other markets,” Dolan said.
U2 will open Sphere Friday evening and will be playing at the Sphere on and off through mid-December.
Starting on Oct. 6, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky will present “Postcard from Earth” at Sphere.