Come one, come all, the circus is ITC!

Photo by Jenny May
Photo by Jenny May

When the Great Euro Circus announced they were coming to Lane Cove, you could feel the excitement buzzing through the plaza. Imagine, a circus in our neck of the woods! Tickets were quickly purchased, and excitement levels continued to increase as the date of the big top’s arrival drew closer.

The Great Euro Circus (GEC) is currently on at Blackman Park (Lane Cove West) until the 20th of September 2015. It is quite the sight from afar, with two large, exotic looking tents on the oval. The tents look particularly amazing at night, with their exteriors colourfully lit.

Arriving at the circus, you enter into the smaller of the two tents, where you can buy food like popcorn, fairy floss, hot dogs, doughnuts, ice cream etc. Also off this hall are the toilets (the usually questionable port-a-loos).

Show your tickets, and move along into the Big Top itself. If you’ve splashed out the extra cash, you will be directed to your pre-allocated seats, else find a perch in the General Admission area (which is still pretty close to the action).

And then the GEC begins – you are welcomed by the top-hatted ringmaster, the music starts blaring (it is very loud the whole show), the lights are dimmed, and an amazingly fluorescent acrobatic performance opens the show, with the action continuing pretty much non-stop for almost two hours (with a 15 minute intermission in the middle).

Ringmaster

The circus is a mix of incredible death-defying stunts; awe-inspiring acrobatics; hilariously silly clown antics; with some illusions, and audience participation thrown in too. Highlights were the Human Cannonball (!!!), motorbikes soaring across the crowd, the quick-change artist (how does she do it!??), and the ‘balloon man’ (needs to be seen to be believed!).

Human Canonball

The GEC also features horses – “Rare Gypsy Cob Stallions” and some ponys. While the horses looked very well cared for (many of us would kill for manes like they have!), performing animals aren’t my bag, and IMO the circus would have been better without them.

Horses

But overall, what a spectacular show! Come one, come all, the circus is ITC!

Great Euro Circus

And this review from an ITC liker and lucky ticket winner “Circus was great fun! Our 2.5 year old was probably too young and was scared for most of it. Mostly because of the loud music and lights and suspense. My 5 year old enjoyed it but was also scared in parts and I would say in general it would be suited more to primary school aged kids. It’s also a long show, at 2.5 hours (including a 15 min intermission). The clowns were very funny and we were left laughing very hard at times and in awe at others. I felt quite sad about the horses who were part of the show, they just seemed very sad to be there and not sure how I feel about animals in the circus, they show would have been just as good if not better without them.

The Parents of Lane Cove Facebook page had this to say about the circus “The Circus is in town! We went to the show last night and it was fantastic. Teenagers who thought it would be”lame” were mesmerised!!! – Thanks to The Great Euro Circus who gave away over 100 free tickets to local youth centres and youth mental health services. Dont miss out, they are in town until the 20th September”

You can buy tickets here