*ALL PHOTOS BY BOB WILLIAMS*

COTTAGE GROVE – The Culpepper & Merriweather Circus on Monday brought its authentic, One-Ring, Big Top show to Bohemia Park. Sponsored by the Coast Fork Kiwanis Club. The festivities featured two main show performances. This year’s brand-new performance featured Big Cats presented by Trey Key, trapeze aerialist Simone, the Perez Daredevil Duo on the Tight Rope and Wheel of Destiny, hand and foot juggling by the Macias family, and clown Leo Acton.

“The attendance was a little less than past years, but the crowd of parents and children was no less enthusiastic,” said  Donald Ehrich, president of the Coast Fork Kiwanis Club.

Ehrich said the total paid attendance was about 500 this year, about two-thirds of the 2024 show’s numbers.

“The lion part of the show – they are the only circus in North America with live lions – was as much educational as it was amusing. The two animals ham it up with their trainer, and the children thoroughly enjoy that. It was a beautiful evening, and everything was positive,” he said.

Ehrich said that the Kiwanis Club received about $500 for its efforts to sponsor the event, and they hope to see the Circus again in 2028 on their western circuit.