What makes Las Vegas’ most famous water show at Bellagio run?
By LES KRIFATON
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — For 22 years, the Bellagio water show has been dazzling visitors seven days a week, 365 days a year.
And it’s no small task for the maintenance crew. As tourists watch the iconic fountain put on a show every 30 minutes starting each day at noon, crews are at work behind the scenes to make sure it all happens on time and lives up to the expectation.
“There are over 1,200 pieces of equipment that make the show run,” said Adam Rohleder with Bellagio.
About 30 engineers and laborers maintain the fountain in the 21 million-gallon Bellagio lake. They check, fix and help replace whatever component doesn’t work.
Engineers attend to 192 super shooters, 798 mini shooters, 208 oarsmen (jets that move in circles) and 16 extreme shooters, not to mention lights.
Sometimes, the equipment breaks down. Crew members put on wet suits, goggles, an air tank and tools to do the repairs.
If they can’t fix broken equipment on the line, engineers pull the equipment and put in a standby. Then, it’s back to the “bat cave,” or their garage that gives them access to the humanmade lake and where engineers perform repairs.
Buying new shooters and super shooters is not an option — The company that built the $40 million fountains is no longer in business. So engineers sometimes need to fabricate parts.
Along with the repairs part of the daily routine is cleaning the lake. A cleaning barge vacuums it, collecting mostly garbage and an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 worth of coins per year. Engineers say they usually bag and donate the coins.
Some crew members told FOX5 they’ve been working at the Bellagio water show since it started operation in 1998. At one point, the fountain was the largest in the world. Today, there are larger fountains in Dubai and Manila.
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