On Monday, August 7, during the eight annual OVO Fest, Drake performed on a big-ass replica of the CN Tower in order to recreate the cover of his album Views. To give you a sense of the scale of this impressive duplicate, here are a few pictures from his Instagram:
Drake told the crowd that he asked “19 companies” to construct the copy, and was declined by every single one. However, his request was finally accepted by a man named Eric Pearce, who owns a company called Las Vegas’ Show Group Production Services, which had previously handled production orders from Justin Bieber, Guns N’ Roses, and Roger Waters.
According to CBC News, Pearce and his crew had roughly three weeks to assemble the structure and then move it more than 2,000 miles to the Budweiser Stage in Toronto. They were able to do this by first planning on how to construct it in a single weekend, and then by working on it 24 hours per day, seven days a week. “We didn’t have time to make any models,” Pearce said. “We simply looked at photographs.” Additionally, members of Drake’s team (who themselves were led by production design firm GP-SK Design) gave insights, imagery, and scaled references of the 1,815 foot tall tower.
Pearce, who understandably called the task “very difficult,” says that a replica of that magnitude would traditionally take more than twice as long—six to eight weeks—to complete. As the CBC reports, the final product filled up almost all of the stage, and even included the observation deck’s EdgeWalk trolley equipment. Pearce added that the prop was “two or three times the traditional rock and roll star set.”
After it was completed in its factory in Vegas, it was tested, since it likely would’ve been very bad for business if the set collapsed and killed Drake. It was then packed onto five tractor trailers and driven across the U.S. to Canada. While the cargo was a secret, Pearce also said there really wasn’t much time for word to get out. When the set finally did make it to the stage, it was constructed under the supervision of Pearce’s guys, who had been sent from Nevada. Now that the show is over and the replica has served its purpose, it’s heading back to Vegas so it can sit in storage. Pearce also didn’t divulge how much it costs, or give his two cents on whether or not it was worth it to concoct such a gargantuan pain in the ass model for such a brief usage. But if you need a big replica of a landmark, and you need it done quickly, you now know who to turn to.