The travelling Royal Canadian Family Circus has come to town, bringing performers from around the world to a parking lot at Guildford Town Centre.
The company’s “SPECTAC!” show will be performed 11 times from Thursday (May 17) to Monday, under a big-top set up in the northwest corner of the mall property, at 104th Avenue and 150th Street.
The yellow-and-red tent, which has room for 2,700 spectators, was anchored by crews starting early this week.
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“The logistics, to me it’s almost miraculous that this all gets done every time,” Cathy Sproule, publicist for the circus, told the Now-Leader during a site tour Wednesday.
“We have our own generators and it’s all self-contained, and that tent is 22 metres high. The tent goes up in two and a half days, which is pretty quick. A lot of the performers help set it up, along with some local people we bring in.”
• CLICK HERE to see photos from the 2017 circus in Cloverdale
The family-friendly circus, in Surrey for the second time in two years, features high-wire acts, jugglers, acrobats, stunts, aerialists and more, with Joseph Dominic Bauer as ringmaster.
“It’s going to be an incredible show this year because we have lots of thrill acts,” Sproule said. “We have horses but there are no exotic animals in this circus, and that’s because things change.”
The shows in Surrey this week mark the start of a Canadian tour for the circus, which features performers from China, Brazil, Mexico, Poland and other countries.
The acts include Guerrero 4 Man High Wire (seen on the TV show America’s Got Talent), the S Caleb Carinci Asch equestrian acrobats, Bilea Transformation “Quick Change” Act, Gonzales Duo aerial act, juggling record holder Tommy Tequila and Bauer’s Wheel of Destiny.
“These acts, they go back four, six, eight generations,” Sproule noted. “Tarzan Zerbini, who owns this circus, that family goes back 10 generations — a long time. We have 12 acts from all over the world, and when everybody gets set up, it’s like a circus village, an international one, so it’s interesting.”
Last time through Surrey, in May 2017, Royal Canadian’s tent was set up in Cloverdale, on a gravel lot off 64th Avenue, north of the Stetson Bowl, for seven performances.
• RELATED STORY: Circus arrives in Cloverdale for weekend shows in a 2,700-seat ‘big top’ tent, from 2017.
This week, at Guildford Town Centre (10355 152nd St., Surrey), show dates and times for the circus are Thursday, May 17 (7 p.m.), Friday, May 18 (4 and 7:30 p.m.), Saturday, May 19 (noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m.), Sunday, May 20 (noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m.) and Monday, May 21 (1 and 5 p.m.).
Tickets ($30, or free for spectators aged three and under) can be purchased at royalcanadiancircus.ca. On show days, the on-site box office will open at 10 a.m.
This spring, as part of a regional tour, the circus will also be staged in Tsawwassen (Tsawwassen Mills mall, May 25-27), Richmond (Lansdowne Centre, May 31 to June 3) and Abbotsford (Tradex, June 7-10).
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