The Dublin Community Blog

Here are few shots I took on Monday night at Circus Vegas, which is currently in Swords, on the Airport Rd (transparency: my family run this circus).

Even though I ran away from the circus for a 9-5ish job in Dublin, I have huge amounts of affection and admiration for what goes on here – real, live people, doing amazingly skilfull things. It’s by no means an easy life – that massive big top is still put up and pulled down mainly by hand – but every one involved truly loves it.

The sad thing is, Dubin dwellers are getting to see fewer and fewer circuses as land is guzzled up for devlopment – one of my favourite circus sites in Blackrock is now so tiny very few circuses can fit there any more, and I recently passed the grounds in Whitehall (just opposite the Bingo hall) and they are also in the middle of getting devloped so no more shows there either

In saying that, interest in all things circus has increased in the past few years – Sara Gruen’s wonderful book, Water For Elephants, was a massive word-of-mouth phenomenom, topping the NY Times bestseller list. Closer to home, the Abbey Theatre is showing Circo de la Sombra in April, a family-friendly “mischievous take on the traditional travelling circus show.”

Circus is a lovely, wonderfully old-school tradition and it’s great to see how much kids still enjoy it.

A few more pics on the Dublin Blog Flickr.