Cirque Ducham: Summer in Review
In June of 2026, things were pretty mild in the field. It was, however, very busy in the office. Once July hit, America’s 250th meant there were events going on all month, all over the country and at every scale imaginable. We were in meeting after meeting looking at site maps, schedules, and comparing Client interests against Artist availability.
Then came 4th of July weekend. Over two days, we operated in two states and four cities, executing packages for five contracts and managing 12 Artists. We couldn’t be more proud of our team for making it possible. A huge thank you to Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, IA, for having a fire performance duo every Friday and Saturday throughout July and August; The Village of Neshkoro, WI, for bringing in parade entertainment, balloon twisting, an LED show, and ambient fire dancing to the lovely tunes of Copperbox; Liberty on the Lake in Lake Geneva, WI, for having stilt walkers, a human statue, and face painters; and Waunaboom in Waunakee, WI, for having us operate an entire stage of entertainment all day with juggling, Bubble Shows, and our America 250 Patriotic LED Show.
July remained quite lively with continued fire shows at Lost Island every weekend. Big thanks to Jessi and Cody of Web Weavers for making that commitment possible. In the middle of the month, we were also able to offer a Silk Fan Fun-Zone for Faire on the Fox in Oshkosh, WI. Krysten and I were originally going to provide something similar with poi, hoops, and juggling, but we decided that Stina of Sun Flow Circus would be a perfect fit and added another Artist to our roster. To bring July to a close, Krysten and I made time to attend the International Jugglers Association annual convention, held in Fort Wayne, Indiana this year. There were a dozen or more familiar faces from our network and exponentially more friends, new and old.
August started out somewhat slow, which was incredible for us in terms of recovering from a week-long juggling festival and the busiest month of our lives. It didn’t take long to pick up speed. First, our friends at Madison Circus Entertainment asked us to juggle with them at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. Then, the Web Weavers made room for us to participate at Vibin’ in the Pines in Rosholt, WI. This is an event that we booked Jessi for in 2023, and she is now an entertainment coordinator for it. We couldn’t be more pleased with the result or more proud of her. To wrap up August, we worked the opening night of the GLEAM exhibit at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, WI. This was our sixth year collaborating on an exciting opening night, and we are confident we’ll return again in 2027.
It was also the first year Krysten and I did not personally work GLEAM. In an effort to practice remotely booking more Artists and prioritize our relationship with our art outside of paid gigs, we attended Flow Fest Chicago instead, where we taught a Partner Poi Workshop and performed an LED partner poi duet.
September seemed like it was going to be slow. Although it wasn’t as intense as July or August, a surprising number of opportunities continued to crop up. Krysten and I performed our Patriotic LED Show for a private Labor Day party and enjoyed some LED playtime with the kiddos afterward. Someone who had seen our Aerial Bartenders two years ago also reached back out and booked them for a future event. This month, we proudly provided Aerial Bartenders pouring champagne for guests at the Aqua Homecoming private event at Hidden Creek Estates in Roscoe, IL.
That same weekend, Krysten and I returned to Olbrich Gardens for their biennial CRACKLE event, featuring live music, bonfires, and food vendors during the GLEAM exhibit. The booking coincided with the completion of a new three-person poi choreography that we were able to debut with Austen of Cirque Aflame. On Sunday of the same weekend, Janesville was graced with stilt walkers in their Corn Fest Parade. Big thanks to Jess and Jen for getting up early and tolerating some rain! The next weekend, Brenda joined Krysten and I to provide stilt walking while we performed daytime and LED variations of poi, hoops, juggling clubs, and more. Ending the evening with LEDs to live music from The Third Wheels was an absolute treat. To close out the month, we’ll be performing LED Circus and Fire Dancing at Burning Troll in Mt. Horeb, WI.
Only time will tell what the future brings. Thank you to those of you who have read this far. A blog is a new set of muscles that we’ll be building over time. We’re excited to have journals like this one to look back on, alongside helpful articles, thoughts about our industry, and more personal stories down the line.