It’s one of the most stunning productions on the Las Vegas Strip, but it doesn’t just happen. The Fountains of Bellagio has a crackerjack team working behind the scenes 365 days a year to ensure that the watery spectacle continues to flow beautifully. Las Vegas Magazine went beyond the façade and captured the inner workings of the fountains—an operation that few are privy to.
Thirty employees work on the fountains, including engineers, pool specialists and maintenance divers—and each employee is scuba-certified and holds Open Water Diver or Rescue Diver certifications. The site is staffed 24 hours a day, year-round. Yet another group can be found walking around the premises—mallard ducks, which have raised ducklings on Lake Bellagio year after year.
The tour starts in the features support area, where all the equipment and mechanics for the fountains are stored. It’s a cavernous space located just off the 8.5-acre Lake Bellagio, and continues underneath the hotel’s landscaping. The walk-through continues with the bat cave, the compression room and, finally, the control tower.
Here’s your chance to take a peek inside this iconic attraction.
Control tower
This is where the magic happens. The main computers that control the lighting, sound and performance numbers are located in this tower. Here is also where you’ll find the “famous” green button. At the top of the tower, accessible only by ladder, workstations command awesome views overlooking the lake. Each choreographed show is stored on computers. To start a new show, the file is uploaded and the green button initiates the fountains—a button only a handful of people have pushed, including this writer!
Bat cave
Inside the bat cave, located in the front features support area, is where you’ll find the water-emitting devices. Workers clean and repair all of them in-house. The devices include three shooters of different sizes that push water straight into the air at varying heights. The mini shooter (798 total) goes 100 feet up, the super shooter (192 total) goes 240 feet up and the extreme shooter (16 total) goes 460 feet up. The oarsmen (at top of photo column) spray water—this is where the “dancing fountains” come into play. There are 208 in the lake and 13 spares. The streams of water can reach 77 feet high and flow up to 140 gallons per minute.
Compressor room
It’s so loud inside the compressor room that one is advised to wear industrial-strength earmuffs. Inside this room sits two of the large compressors (10 total) used in the show. When it’s showtime, the compressors operate at about 3,000 horsepower and push through approximately 9,000 cubic feet of air per minute. Large storage tanks of soft water, used for the fog that drifts across the lake, are also in this room. The ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) panel that protects people and equipment is also here. The panel shuts down all the electricity on the lake in the event of an emergency or electrocution, reacting faster than the blink of an eye.
By the Numbers
35—The number of choreographed performances
250,000—The number of Fountains of Bellagio performances, as of March 2020
59,229,120—Combined lumens emitted by the lightbulbs of the Fountains of Bellagio
4792—The number of individual lights in the attraction
183—The number of speakers located around the lake’s perimeter
Musical Notes
It takes WET (the company behind the design and choreography of the fountain performances) several months to develop, design and perfect a new song for the catalog. Some of the newest songs include:
“Believe” (Cher)
“Bad Romance” (Lady Gaga)
“Uptown Funk” (Bruno Mars)
The holiday season switches things up with special performances that include:
“Santa Baby” (Madonna)
“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (Johnny Mathis)
“O Holy Night” (Placido Domingo)
Songs we would like used for a performance:
“It’s Oh So Quiet” (Björk)
“One More Time” (Daft Punk)
“Theme From Shaft” (Isaac Hayes)
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