A rare sight will soon be seen in front of CN Centre. A pavilion will pop up like a palatial purple sunrise.
The circus is coming to town, and it is under a good ol' fashioned big-top tent. This one has four spires and a heliotrope hue splashed and dotted across the canvas dome of the Circo Osorio Circus (COC).
The same big-top was in Prince George last year, in the same spot, but the public had a harder time noticing the new addition to the Exhibition Park skyline. An historic disaster was unfolding just as their tent was.
The enormous forest fires of 2017 disrupted their travel route and their audience. They instantly went into philanthropy mode, helping to entertain the evacuation victims and raising money for the aftermath. The COC cast and crew donated about $4,000 to the recovery effort.
They are back this year for a do-over. This time, the skies are clear and Prince George's local population is hosting willing summer tourists instead of shocked, frightened, shaken refugees of the region.
"We weren't familiar with the area, and we weren't sure how things should go, but as they say, the show must go on, we knew that," said Francisco Pancho Osorio, co-proprietor of the Las Vegas-based touring show. He is a generational owner-operator of this entertainment oddity. There aren't many circuses still out on the highways anymore, but they continue to roll along largely because animals (increasingly banned for performance purposes) are not the crux of their entertainment, and largely because of their theme.
"We bring you the flavours of Latin America, so you'll see acts from Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Argentina, our home country of Mexico, and the Latino elements of Los Angeles and Las Vegas where we call home today," said Osorio.
Their headline act is the exciting crowd-pleaser The Globe of Death. The titular hollow steel sphere is where two motorcycles defy gravity and collision at the same time, as the two riders blaze inverted trails through the see-through structure without smashing into each other.
COC audiences also spend a lot of time looking upwards. Tightropes and trapezes are some of their best-known features, and it is where this show first began in 1927.
"It was built in Mexico," Osorio explained.
"My brother Robert and I are fourth generation performers. Our stage name was The Electrifying Osorio Brothers, and we were a high-wire act."
They got off the ground when their great-great-grandfather took his own leap. He went to see a travelling show in his own youth, fell in love with one of the performers, and pursued her by literally running away to join the circus.
As the generations unfolded, their great-great-grandfather taught his offspring how to perform. The bloodlines have cascaded through the years until they now own their own circus. Pancho and Robert have the same entertainment infection, even though their days of leaping and plunging through the spaces at the apex of the big-top are now behind them.
Despite that, they are still in touch through the business of COC, the ringmaster, and some illusionist trickery.
They have also surrounded themselves with jugglers, clowns, magicians, acrobats and other performers who make COC a buffet of showmanship.
Their massive tent will climb from ground to sky on Wednesday and Osorio said he still stares with a smile at that process.
"The tent itself is a beautiful sight, a 'wow' thing to see," he said. "It is quite a unique effort to set it up, and I love it no matter how many times I've seen it."
The performances then unfold Thursday through Sunday.
Thursday's show is the special commencement presentation at 7:30 p.m.
Friday has performances at 5:30 and 7:30 in the evening.
Saturday has three shows starting in the afternoon. They go at 3:30, 5:30 and 7:30.
On Sunday the shows are at 3:30 and 5:30 in the afternoon.
