Rehearsals started for the tour in March 2008 and Ward appeared on stage flanked with dancers and a live band plus one backing singer.

Mayor Richard M. Daley sat between Jordan and Jackson on the stage, flanked by the Luvabulls cheerleaders.

Set designers are perpetually stymied by the wide, shallow stage, flanked by immovable steps leading to the castle's interior and battlements.

The festival generally features three performance spaces: the main stage, flanked by a smaller stage, and the Grassroots stage located by Shakedown Street.

Outside party headquarters, the men took a stage flanked by plastic palm trees and basked in the adoration of hundreds of supporters.

Zambiapunga, in tall two-tone hats, black ski masks and wildly colorful outfits, marched around the stage flanked by two frisky costumed demons.

She approached the lectern on a stage flanked by four men dressed as tin soldiers who looked like Buckingham Palace guards.

"We have a clear idea of the future," he said in his presentation, strutting across a wide stage flanked by two new Nissan subcompact cars.

Dozens of print reporters from around the country sat at the foot of the stage, flanked by a bank of network television cameras.

People spilled along the grassy Mall on each side of a temporary stage flanked by multistory banks of powerful stage lights and loudspeakers.