August 2010 in review

August began on a sad note with Dondi the elephant's memorial service at the Southwick Zoo on Sunday evening August 1st. Dondi passed away after a brief illness in late July. She had a very well attended service with about 100 people in attendance, including her family Joshua, Ashley, Phil, and Francine. Much of the staff of Southwick's zoo was there, many performers who knew and loved Dondi, staff from the Enchanted Forest Amusement Park in New York where she once worked as well as fair committee members from the Guilford Fair in Connecticut. Even more surprising were the everyday people who Dondi had given rides to or performed for, one lady came out from Connecticut, Dondi had given her husband a ride while he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Dondi was truly an extraordinary animal who touched many, many lives and without the ability to travel and perform this would not have been possible.

On Wednesday the 4th we traveled up to the Crown of Maine as it is known to the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. This is a beautiful ride right to the northern end of I-95 followed by 50 miles on Route 1 through countless potato farms. We had a chance to visit with the fair President Andy LeBlanc and also Vicenta Pages with her White Bengal Tigers that we had booked at the fair this year. We even saw motor daredevil Crash Moreau visiting the fair. Crash is a thrilling performer but also visits many, many fairs and circuses during the season and documents the layouts of each and every one. We were hoping for an appearance by the Aurora Borealis that evening since there had been a recent solar flare but the skies did not co-operate with a cloud cover much of the evening.

On Thursday the Rehoboth Fair opened on the south coast of Massachusetts. We had the Magic of Lance Gifford and Company and his amazing staging. Also at the fair was Lance's Grannie's Racing Pigs as well as Lucky Bob. This fair is everything you think of when you think country fair, a carnival midway, motor events, 4H animals and entertainment. The fair reopened about 5 years ago after a long layoff and a change of fairgrounds and fair committee. Every year the attendance has increased and it is very well received by the people in Rehoboth and the surrounding communities. The fairgrounds itself is a nice mix of open spaces and shady trees. They have grown so much and improved each and every year I cannot wait to see what the next 5 years brings.

On Monday the 9th we were called in by the Anastasini's to help bring acts to a secret location in central Maine for an all star circus rivaling some of the finest shows traveling the world. The acts for the show included the CannonLady, Sacha Pavlata(Cloud Swing), Chiara, Anastasini (Hand Balancing), Ringmaster Joe Barney, Jumbo the Clown, "The Human Inferno" - Nicholas Penny (Fire Eater & Sword Swallower) and Vicenta Pages with her White Tigers, Larry Records (Camels) and a boatload of Clowns! The show was presented at 6 am!!!!

We spend a lot of time in August preparing for Labor Day Weekend's Spencer Fair, making all the final advertising and promotional arrangements with the media. Spencer is an event that the media looks forward to each year as it is the largest event in Worcester County and a long time family favorite.

The end of August we had the Flying Wallenda's making a return engagement for the Union Fair and their talent buyer Diana Ammon of Atlantic Music Productions. The fair is well known for also being the Maine Blueberry Festival.

This Great photo of the Flying Wallendas is courtesy of Legendary Daredevil & Movie Star Crash Moreau.

On Thursday the 26th we traveled up to Lyndonville, Vermont for the Caledonia County Fair, we had a visit with midway operator Bob DeStefano of Dreamland Amusements. We also had an opportunity to visit with the Flying Pages and Vicenta Pages and her White Tigers.

On Friday we headed over for the set up day at Champlain Valley Exposition where both the Nerger's Tigers and the Anastasini Circus under the big top were making return performances.

Saturday was opening day of the Champlain Valley Exposition and is was a very busy opening day. We had a chance to catch a couple performances each of both Nerger's and the Anastasini's. This year's Anastasini Circus included Heidi Herriott ring-mistress and big & little horses, Luciano's Pound Puppies, the Globe of Death, Rola Bola, Rocky the boxing kangaroo, Nicholas Souren juggling & contortion. It was nice to see the crowds at the fair were filling the tent right from the very first performance.

Most of the month of August was extremely hot here in the Northeast, with many, many days reaching well into the 90's normally we have just a handful of 90 degree days in a summer this year it was not unusual to have a handful of 90 degree days in a week!

We are looking forward to having a very busy September!

July 2010 in Review

A very busy July, lots of travel, and tons of heat and humidity! As always July began with a bang with one of the busiest entertainment weekends of the year here in the United States, the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

We began July on the road traveling to Houlton, Maine through one of the most picturesque parts of I-95. Houlton is just about as far as you go before I95 ends at the Canadian border. Its fair time in northern Maine and we paid a visit to the Houlton Fair and fair president Paul Cleary. We had a couple of shows returning to Houlton, Kachunga and the Alligator came to Houlton for the 3rd time in 6 years, this time bringing with the the ultimate in rare reptiles, an albino alligator born in Louisiana and one of less than 50 known in the world. All albino alligators live in captivity since their life expectancy in the wild is less than 24 hours due to predators and the fact that they have zero sun protection, exposure to the sun would cause a quick death.

Also returning to Houlton was Maximum Velocity, an action sports show featuring BMX riders and a flatland skateboarder. This year Maximum Velocity performed outdoors in front of the Civic Center. Maximum Velocity is a very popular attraction with young people who really enjoy the high flying, acrobatic BMX stunts and their parents enjoy the message of safety and safety equipment.

On Saturday we spent most of the day just south of Boston in the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts were we had two events in the same day celebrating the July 4th holiday. First was Kids Day run by Janet Jasmin formally Janet Salvaggi whom I graduated high school with in an undisclosed year. Kids Day is for the local children and there were lots of activities for the children including the music of the Bravo Bros. who also performed for the committee in 2009, Chuckwagon Mac Tales of the Old West, and Boris Koski who supplied balloon twisting, face painting artistry and a little Velociped riding to start of the bicycle parade. Later that evening Chuckwagon Mac stayed on for the fireworks celebration, after all what is more American than cowboys on the 4th of July. North American Amusements also supplied a midway at the event for the second year.
Sunday it was off to Groton, Connecticut to the U.S. Navy Base for Subfest 2010. Rockwell Amusements again supplied the midway with lots of rides for the whole family. Returning for an unprecedented fourth year was Bwana Jim's Wildlife show. Two all new shows for Subfest 2010 was Vicenta Pages and her Royal White Bengal Tigers and the Old Tyme Lumberjack Show.

Overall the entire east coast was in the midst of a heat wave over the weekend from Maine to Georgia where the Anastasini's finished up their run at Wild Adventure's Theme Park in Valdosta. The heat was an overall factor in the attendance figures at so many events once that mercury rises & the humidity becomes oppressive we find the attendance is similar to that of a day filled with rain.

On July 16th we opened up the South County Balloon Festival at the campus of the University of Rhode Island for the Wakefield Rotary Club. Two shows at this popular event this year, returning for a second year was Taylor Michael's Magically Medieval and his lovely assistant and wife Vicky. All new for 2010 it was the High Flying Pages trapeze family whose aerial artistry is a nice compliment for this type of event and audience. George Gritzbach, blues artist and Becky Chase, Americana provided an afternoon and early evening of music on Saturday night.


On Saturday the 17th after the festivities of the balloon festival we made a trek up to Boston's Hatch Shell for a show with Eddie Money who after a long flight delay in Chicago made it to the show by the hair of his chinny chin chin, as did we coming from the furthest reaches in Rhode Island. The audience was just tremendous, overfilling the famed Esplanade for this show presented by Oldies 103.3 Boston.

July 17th was the opening of the Barnstable County Fair. For the opening weekend we had strolling artist Brad Bodary with his Bronze Cowboy, Living Mannequin and other popular characters. Returning to the food court stage this year was the prop comedy of Lucky Bob who can really draw in and keep an audience. On Thursday evening George Gritzbach graced the food court stage on what turned out to be a record attendance night at the fair.

The weekend arrived with another tremendous blast of heat and humidity on the east coast as the Flying Pages trapeze act traveled to their second weekend at a hot air balloon festival. This time they appeared at the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning at the Solberg Airport. This is the largest hot air balloon festival outside of New Mexico and probably the most unique of any festival we have attended. The highlight of the event is always the sunrise and sunset launch of more than 125 hot air balloon but they also offer a large music stage with national acts as well as some variety entertainment to pass the hours between the launches. Their is a vendor and food concession area that compares to no other event, and they continue to amazing me with some what can only be called one of a kind offerings, that you won't see at any other event. The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning can certainly be considered a destination and is certainly worthy of your vacation or leisure time! Bring comfortable walking shoes as this event takes up the entire airport, leave your heels and flip flops at home!


We had some devastating news on Wednesday the 28th, Dondi the beloved Asian elephant belonging to the Schacht family passed away after a brief illness at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. She had appeared at many festivals, fairs, amusement parks, zoos, church events, some circuses and Renaissance Faires over the years that were all too brief.
The Schacht family dedicated the last 35 years to her care after she was taken as a calf from a lumber camp in Thailand. For those of you unfamiliar with the teak camps in Southeast Asian they can be hell for elephants and humans alike feeding the need for teak furniture, lumber, boat decking, etc. Elephants are used to knock down trees with their heads, carry the lumber miles through hot, humid, infested jungles to rivers, over and over again. They are used because these places do not have the machinery to pull off this type of labor. Elephants and humans die young and baby elephants are either taken from their mothers or killed if the lumber business owners feel the babies are taking away from their mothers work in the forest. Their is no regard for life of either the human laborers or the endangered Asian elephant.
Dondi was bonded to Phil, Francine, Joshua, & Ashley although Dondi had been introduced to her own kind she had little interest. Her human family and later on a couple a miniature horses is what she desired for companionship. Please keep the Schacht Family in your prayers their loss is devastating, they have lost not only their beloved elephant, but their way of life and also their co-worker, Dondi. They will be in our thoughts and prayers as they start over in life.

On the 29th of July the Tigers of Adam Burck opened at WestFair in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Adam and his wife Elaine have a nice mix of Royal Bengal Tigers, three golden tigers and three white tigers. They perform a great show educating the public on the natural abilities of tigers and bringing attention to the few remaining tigers left in the wild. Elaine tells me they really enjoyed their time at WestFair and they were well received by the fair goers.

Friday the 30th was opening day at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle up in the crown of Maine. If you ever had a Maine potato chances are it came by way of Presque Isle a lovely farming community and only of the only cities in far northern Maine. The fair committee is dedicated to bringing first quality entertainment to the people who live in Aroostook county especially animal shows. This year we had Vicenta Pages and her White Bengal tigers perform at the fair this was Vicenta's second visit ever to Presque Isle she also visited with the Shrine Circus.

Although July was busy it passed far too quickly but we are now into August and enjoying our time visiting on the road.

Until our August review . . . we will see you all down the road!