Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli plan to visit State Farm Center in 2024
An A-List celebrity and her family are coming to Champaign in March.
Bluey’s Big Play will take the State Farm Center stage for two evening shows, on Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27.
Bluey’s Big Play is the award-winning children’s television series’ first foray into a live theatre show. It features Bluey and her family of Heelers, who come to life thanks to skilled puppeteers (see video below).
A special pre-sale will be available starting Wednesday. Use code “chambanamoms” to access the presale, which runs from Wednesday at noon through Thursday at 10 pm. Go to StateFarmCenter.com/Promo to access the presale.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 20, at noon CT at StateFarmCenter.com, by phone at 866-ILLINI-1, and in person at the Illinois Ticket Office inside the west lobby of State Farm Center.
Non-VIP tickets range from $29-$99 plus fees.
A limited number of VIP packages will be available. VIP packages include premium seating; a post-show meet-and-greet and photo opportunity with Bluey; and an exclusive souvenir. VIP packages range between $147-162 per person plus fees.
The show runs 50 minutes with no intermission. Both shows start at 6:30 pm; doors will open at 5:30 pm.
At the end of each show, audience members will be invited to participate in games of “keepy uppy” – one where several air-filled balls (made of materials which do not include BPA, Latex or PVC) are released into the audience, and another with bubbles (made of non-stain solution).
The show is enjoyable for all ages; all persons entering the theater, including infants, are required to have a ticket to enter State Farm Center.
According to the show’s promoters: “This is Bluey as you’ve never seen it before, brought to real life.”
Reviewers have been smitten.
“For parents, the delight of the show is probably 25% the show itself, and 75% the squeals and expressions coming from the tots on our laps,” wrote Hilary Sutton in the online publication DC Theater Arts.
“We loved it so much,” wrote a 6-year-old in the Los Angeles Times. “We got to sit in a theater and watch Bluey and her family do all the things we like to watch Bluey and her family do on TV.”
Bluey is the most famous Australian export since Crocodile Dundee. The series about a 6-year-old dog and her family inspires devotion not only among children but their grown-ups too.
Bluey’s Big Play recently graced the stage at the Peoria Civic Center on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, drawing more than 6,000 fans to its four shows over two days. A press release announced Bluey’s Big Play is the highest-grossing family show ever at the Civic Center Theater.