Page 23 - The Outdoor Showman July-September 2024

RODEO NEWS
and the legendary Birdsville Races (up to 10,000 visitors each year.)
His efforts there helped revive
the town’s economy and led to his award of an Order of Australia Medal (OAM.)
Cirque Africa
This stage production is playing 13 major Queensland theatres, late August to 15 September.
Starting at QPAC Brisbane. It plays one-nighters at Toowoomba, Ipswich, Redcliffe, Logan, Redland Bay, Caloundra, Twin Towns, Gold Coast, Gladstone, Maryborough, Bundaberg and Townsville.
It’s produced by the creators of “Mother Africa”, which toured from New York to Australia a decade ago.
Pink Flamingo
Sue Porritt (ex-Stardust Circus) is having a good run with two of her glamour circus-cabaret productions on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.
The 18-years-and-over “Pink Flamingo Spiegel club”, Broadbeach, took
five weeks to renovate, revamp
and re-launch by March 22.
The Brisbane outfit just goes from strength to strength, with three different productions.
Stardust Circus
Back in Sydney, Stardust has two dozen members of the Lennon-West families in its full-ring performances.
They were at Manly 2-18 August, Hawkesbury Showground 23 August - 1 September, Blacktown 6-29 September.
It’s got all the big numbers: Wheel of Death, high wire, flying trapeze (triple), teeterboard, dogs and pigs, and clown production numbers.
“Infamous”
This cabaret circus featured on Channel ‘s “Sunrise” program Friday August 9. It’s showing at Penrith Raceway.
Fresh from last year’s US tour,
it has Australia’s most stunning opening. Merrick Ashton rides a unicycle at one end of the wheel. His father
Pepe does a forward somersault on
the outside, and later Bekki does a loop (still on the outside) standing on Pepe’s shoulders. Simply stunning!
So is the two-girl aerial number, Bekki and Michelle, and Merrick’s famous juggling-slackwire act that won a Clown award at the Monte Carlo World Circus Championships. Surfing a huge wave of word-of- mouth advertising, they play up
to six weeks on a site, with houses getting better every week.
Circus Royale
Damien Syred’s show is using holograms in a very different production around Melbourne and country Victoria.
From Werribee in April-May, it featured animatronic lions and elephants,
its usual ballet and aerial numbers, and big new production numbers.
Last elephants
Taronga, Sydney’s state-owned zoo, is ending a century and a half’s showing Indian elephants.
The last two, Pak Boon, 31, and
Tang Mo, 25, (at the zoo since
2006), will join others at a 14-acre compound, complete with swimming hole, at Monarto zoo, South Australia. it will also house others from Aukland and Perth Zoos.
Another herd lives at Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, also owned by the NSW Government.
Taronga will replace these two with a mixed-species area, housing a rhinoceros and buffalo.
Cirque du Soleil
Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil has signed a multi-million-dollar deal to show at Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Golf Club over the next eight years. The club says it negotiated the “several-million- dollar agreement” over 12 months.
Cirque has several times played the site at Hamilton, on a main airport-to-city traffic route, overlooking the river.
Similar set-up to Mein Circus Welt
Huge box frame king poles
Four-poler in Weisbaden, Germany
Luzia will be there this year, September 25 to November 10. Other shows are scheduled in 2026, 2028 and 2030.
The club says the development “will provide an opportunity to generate further income from similar events in the future.”
Cirque will contribute to “critical water, sewerage and power infrastructure on the eastern section,” also to
be used for the short course
and its supporting facilities.
Latest Euro Tents
Circus Barelli, typical of larger new- style Big Tops in use in Western Europe. Is this a future Australian trend? Not suitable for one-night stands. Note engineering over
the top. Big bridge, usually carries massive outdoor lighting.
Dusty
Dusty Dawson (Kevin Cutts) former whip-cracker and horse trainer with Alberto’s Circus, has died, after
a long illness, aged 88, retired in Wollongong. Son of a country NSW vet, always in impeccable country- squire style, he was a longtime friend of Alby Perry, Senior, specialising in presenting horses in the 1960-70s.
All chair seating
Inside ring box, they use fences too.
THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN 21