Nationals

Photography

Professional photos of your routine

Photo coverage at Nationals comes from an independent photography team rather than from Aerialympics. Packages start at five high-resolution in-performance images, and you can add more individually.

Sign-ups are open now and continue on site each competition day. Day-of coverage is not guaranteed, so it is worth booking ahead if you can.

Book photo coverage

Anything to do with photos — booking, pricing, delivery, edits — goes straight to the photo team at [email protected]. Our staff will not be able to answer those questions.

From your seat

Taking your own photos

Personal photos and video from your seat are very welcome. Two small favours: please keep your flash off — a flash at the wrong moment is a real safety problem for someone thirty feet in the air — and please keep the aisles clear so the crew can move.

When you arrive

The check-in table

Check-in is just inside the LPAT Lower Side Entry, and all badges are picked up there.

• Arriving with a team? Have your performers wait outside the check-in area while a coach or designated adult collects the whole team’s badges at once. It keeps the queue moving for everybody.
• Performer Check In is a separate step later, at the Aerialympics production desk, during your section’s check-in window.
• Questions during the event? The production desk is where to find us.

Badges

Who gets one

• Performers automatically receive a free badge for all four days, so you can watch your teammates and friends. Nothing to request.
• Team Program coaches automatically receive a free badge for all four days — our thanks for everything you do.
• Other coaches can request a free badge for the day or days their team performs, through the badge request form on the Nationals event page. Issued at staff discretion.
• Support people — parents, helpers, assistant coaches — can be requested by coaches with larger teams. Teams of five or more performers may request a second coach badge; ten or more may request a third.
• Anyone else needing backstage access, such as an extra coach, hair stylist or makeup artist, needs their own badge request. If approved, there is a $50 per person per day fee.
• Performers under 14 attending without a coach must be accompanied by a parent or designated adult, who needs a badge requested through the form.

Badge requests go through the official form on the Nationals event page — we are not able to accept them by email. Missed the deadline? You can still get backstage with a ticket plus a $20 badge fee at the door. Lost your badge? A replacement is $20 once we verify you had one. Please don’t share a badge — we treat that as theft, and it means a ban from future Aerialympics LIVE events.

Watching

Tickets, seats and awards

• Everyone in the theatre needs a ticket or a badge, including small children. Babes in arms are the one exception — they come in free.
• Badge holders get free theatre access on the days printed on the badge.
• Awards ceremonies are scheduled between competition sections, so they need a ticket or badge just like the performances do.
• A single-day badge or ticket covers that whole day and you can come and go, so step out for lunch without worrying.

Tickets are on the Nationals event page.

Backstage

Rules back there

Backstage is a shared working space, and a valid badge for that day is required — no exceptions. Anyone without one will be asked to leave, which can mean deductions or disqualification for their performer.

• No performer may be backstage alone, at any age, for any reason.
• Performers under 14 need a coach or designated adult with them at all times.
• Performers 14 and over need a teammate, coach or designated adult with them at all times.
• Performers are backstage only when preparing for the next section.
• Keep noise down — another section may be competing or warming up nearby.
• Clean up after yourselves: makeup, costume pieces, food and drink.

Getting ready

Changing, hair and makeup

We have the theatre area only, not the rest of the community center. Other groups are using the building, and if we disrupt them the facility can remove us — which would put this venue at risk for every future event.

• Change in the individual tents in the dressing room. Everyone uses a tent, regardless of age or gender. There is an extra tent stage left for emergencies and quick changes.
• Hair and makeup happen in the dressing room, at the mirrors.
• The single dressing room bathroom is for the bathroom — not for changing, hair or makeup.
• Lobby restrooms are for restroom use only.

Tents fill up fast right before a section, so leave yourself extra time, and arrive with hair and makeup started if you can. Changing, hair or makeup in a prohibited area can bring performance deductions or disqualification, with no refund.

How a day runs

Every section, step by step

1. Doors openEarliest anyone may enter, at least 30 minutes before Section 1. Aim to arrive around this time, not before it.
2. Apparatus check-inBring your apparatus to the rigging team for safety approval. Using house apparatus? Still touch base with the riggers now.
3. Performer check-inAt the production desk. Confirm your music by listening to the first few seconds, then head to the stage test standby area. Coaches are welcome and encouraged.
4. Stage testingTwo minutes each, in competition order, one act at a time. An orientation, not a practice run.
5. Five-minute breakThen competition begins.
6. CompetitionSame order as stage testing. Coaches may be near or on the stage to spot and handle mats.
7. Apparatus retrievalThe only window to get your apparatus back. Request it from the riggers.
8. BreakAround 30 minutes. Hydrate, change, rest. No apparatus use.

The order is fixed; the clock is not. A section can run ahead if stage testing finishes early, so be ready when your name is called rather than at the listed time.

Apparatus

Arrive pre-rigged

Your apparatus must be rigged and ready to clip into our point before you get to the venue. Riggers cannot make exceptions on competition day, so if something is unclear, ask us well before the event rather than at the door.

• The highest piece of your equipment must be a carabiner, ready to clip straight into our point.
• Our main point includes a swivel. Ensemble points do not — if your ensemble routine uses swivels, each apparatus needs its own.
• Every apparatus needs its own separate rigging. You cannot share rigging between apparatuses in the same section.
• Extra mat needs, such as the Pit Pillow, must be raised during apparatus check-in.
• Retrieval happens only in the scheduled window, and only by asking the riggers. Never collect it yourself, and if you have to leave early, arrange for a responsible adult to request it for you.

Apparatus that is not pre-rigged as described will not be rigged by our team, and you will need to use house apparatus or be unable to perform. No refunds are issued in that case.

Everyone

Code of conduct

We expect performers, coaches, parents and guests to treat everyone here with respect — facility staff, volunteers, judges and fellow competitors included. A person’s conduct can affect their performer’s privilege to participate.

Coaches, please make sure your families and supporters know this before they arrive. If you see a violation, tell an Aerialympics staff member straight away.

Read the full code of conduct

Afterwards

Scores and placings

Placings are announced at each day’s awards ceremony and posted afterwards on the event page and at aerialympics.com/results-1. Full feedback forms — every performer’s placing plus the other scores in their division — go to each team’s Drive folder within two weeks of the end of the event.