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!

September 2009 in Review

September has come and gone already. . . its been a whirlwind of events from coast to coast. We began September as we left off in August at the Champlain Valley Fair. The CVE as its known had a nice run of weather after a showery opening day. The fair was thrilled with both the Nerger's Tigers as well as the Anastasini Family Circus under the Big Top. A favorite of fair-goers at CVE was 3.5 month old Bengal Tiger Mazumi.

On Friday the 4th the Spencer Fair opened in Spencer, Massachusetts. Spencer is the quintessential New England Fair with a nice stage, grandstand area where the Demolition Derby rules, pulling events, family entertainment and tons of agriculture.

We have been working on advertising the fair for several years now buying their ads as well as producing the television, radio and print advertising. This years advertising them is "You'll Flip for the 121st Spencer Fair" to fit this years entertainment that featured an FMX Motorcycle show as well as the High Flying Pages trapeze act.

The following weekend we worked with Atlantic Music Productions to bring the Flying Wallendas to their first ever appearance at the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The Wallendas were scheduled to play the fair Thursday through Saturday but after rainy weather modified some of the Wallendas show, Tino Wallenda generously offered the fair to stay an extra day (Sunday) to perform for the masses.

On Sunday the 13th we traveled up to Maine for the Oxford Fair where we had the High Flying Pages Trapeze family performing there for the first time ever. The Oxford Fair continues its growth, Suzanne Grover the fair manager their has done an amazing job over the past few years making upgrades to the fair including new buildings, bathrooms, betting parlors and adding days to the run to name a few. We were able to catch up with friends Stephanie and Jeff there who moved to Poland, Maine several years ago. It was their first visit to the Oxford Fair.

On the 19th Gordon attended the Massachusetts Agricultural Fair Association meeting which was held in the Massachusetts State Building on the grounds of the Big E on the second day of the Big E's run. We all took a ride out to visit the fair for the day, attendance that day was over 100,000 people. But it was especially nice to spend a little time with Mrs. Hanneford at the fair, whose show was looking great, not to be outdone by Mrs. Hanneford herself who celebrated a birthday at the fair, but she'd probably skin me if I told which one.

On Sunday the 20th we visited the Flying Wallenda's at the Guilford Fair in Connecticut. It was the 150th addition of the Guilford Fair to celebrate the Wallenda's put on a spectacular show featuring a Sky Walk between cranes by Tino over 100' long and 75' in the air. Also in the show were the Flying Cortez family and the Human Comet (JP's high fall on fire!).

Also on the 20th we had three acts booked into a corporate party held at Mount Wachusett. Western was the theme for the day, we had Tall Tex (Boris Koski on stilts), Cowboy Brian Dwyer also on stilts and the one and only Rattlesnake Dave Richardson and his West Texas Rattlesnake show. I hear all Dave's show had big crowds, people just love to be terrified by Dave's kids (the rattlesnakes).

The weekend of the 26th we had Dan Grady's Marionettes up at Mount Wachusett for their annual Kids Fest. This was a very nice event at the ski area with wonderful entertainment and samples for kids of all ages and their families. Saturday had big crowds during our visit, Sunday had some rain showers but Dan is so versatile he was able to modify his show and move from his outdoor stage (under a tent) to inside the ski lodge where everyone was able to stay nice and dry. Marionettes are really becoming a lost art, Dan's are among the best in the business, Dan had put a lot of work this spring into "renovating" some of his beloved marionettes which were created by Dan himself. Young children are just mystified by marionettes by they also go over well at arts festivals.

This year all of our acts have had to make the best of it at several events as we have had one wet summer which has continued into the fall! I have seen our acts go the extra mile this year to move shows inside or under cover or just get through it in adverse conditions all the credit goes to our amazing roster of acts who have sacrificed their comfort, their artistic integrity and sometimes their safety. The "Getting It Done" award goes to: Magically Medieval, the Flying Pages, the Flying Wallendas, the Nerger's Lion and Tigers and Dan Grady's Marionettes (I hope I didn't leave anyone out). The one good thing is audiences have been making the best of it and people as still coming out despite the weather, were all used to being a bit damp at this point.

On the 30th of September we had Johnny Gunn perform at Tommy T's club in Rancho Cordova California with special guest and his good friend Eddie Money. Johnny co-wrote many of Eddie's hits including Shakin', Johnny also played guitar on many of Eddie's albums.

September is also the month were we really get moving on booking for next season and this year has been very busy. Without giving anything away, I don't want to steal any one's thunder, I'll let the fairs and events make their big announcements, I can tell you what type of events are going to be "in" this year. We have had lots of requests for western events (back to celebrating the American heritage) both rodeos, bull riding and wild west shows. Animal acts are another very popular request as are tented circuses, music and aerial acts. Proposals are going out daily, contracts are coming in and there will be many, many repeat performances in 2010, which is already shaping up to be a very good and exciting year.

August in Review

Wow, where did the summer go? August goes by so quickly, this year was no exception.

We began where we left off, Close Encounters (Vince and Pom Pom) finished up for the Volunteer Fire Department in Bushkill. They reported bad weather throughout the run which has been par for the coarse this summer.

We also had Pam Rosaire Zoppe's Chimpfabulous at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. We were up to visit on the 4th, its always a wonderful ride up north, very little traffic, lovely scenery. The chimps were very well received as are all animal acts at the fair, its a long trip from Presque Isle to the closest zoo, and chimps in general are all too rare anywhere. On the way home on Wednesday we had a nice breakfast with Paul Cleary from the Houlton Fair. Meeting Paul up in Houlton is a lot like meeting Norm at Cheers, everyone knows his name!

Later on that week we had the Rehoboth Fair open, Lance Gifford returned to the fair with his amazing newly renovated stage and Lucky Bob who can really draw and audience! Our son Justin fell in love with a couple of baby rabbits at the fair and being that I grew up with pet rabbits I agreed to bring the pair home. That is what fairs are all about, family fun with agriculture. The bunnies are growing nicely, "Buffy" named for my mothers cat, Justin's favorite feline, is a tri colored mini lop bunny. The other is a cute little tan mini lop bunny with some charcoal colored shading named "Smoke" for Tony Stewart, one of Justin's favorite NASCAR drivers.

On Friday the 9th it was great to catch up with our friends at the Whaling City Festival who had a volunteers dinner hosted by Joe Eugenio (the unofficial mayor of New Bedford). Its always great when our clients include us in their celebrations. We brought a cake from Amazing Cakes, a local bakery who does an amazing job of supply us cakes with logos and special requests for our clients and family, and they taste great to boot.

Our next event was the Tri-State Fair in Vermont for Dreamland Amusements, we had the Flying Pages perform their trapeze and pony act as well as the Nerger Tigers who brought with them 3 one year old white tigers who they hand raised after the mother rejected them (quite common with the first litter) as well as an adorable 3 month old standard color cub. Of course the 12 show tigers and one male lion.

On the 21st Kieran Ridge Band performed on the main stage of City Hall Plaza in Boston for GreenFest. It was a hot, hot, hot and humid day.

Later that evening we met with a Blues artist who was opening for BB King at the Cape Cod Melody tent. George Gritzbach was recommended to us by our good long time friend Laurie Webster. George and his band had a fantastic sound and could not have been received better by the audience who gave them a standing ovation.

Our late August fairs come fast and furious, Dreamland Amusements worked with us and the Caledonia County Fair to bring the Flying Pages to Lyndonville for the first time. The Pages really enjoyed their time there and it was another fabulous drive up on Thursday the 27th to visit them. Anthony Pages had a bad fall a few weeks back and it was nice to see he was beginning to recover (the doctors want him out maybe 6 to 8 weeks). He had multiple broken bones as well as a head injury. He'll have a follow up with the doctors in the coming weeks and he is really hoping he is cleared to begin practice again. The Pages have been working very hard to keep him relaxed and healing while getting temporary replacements to fill Anthony's spot, which I know is tough for him to see.

We found time on Sunday to head up to Spencer for their annual volunteer barbeque, yes, yet another Amazing Cake!

The Flying Wallendas performed up in Union Maine for our friend and talent buyer Diana Ammon of Atlantic Music Productions, unfortunately Saturday rained too much for the fair to handle and they closed for the day at 11 am.

We stayed up in Vermont after Caledonia for set up day and opening day of the Champlain Valley Fair where we had the Nerger Tigers as well as the Anastasini Family's Big Top Circus. Saturday rained on the opening but it was nice to see Struppi Hanneford visit her daughter Nellie and grand daughter Kathy who performed on the Spanish Web for the show.

Also that same weekend Lucky Bob performed for the Cummington Fair in Massachusetts.

Busy, busy August, but busy is good!