Tag: circus

Sunday fun at Adams Avenue Street Fair!

75 musical acts on seven stages! Over eight city blocks of fun, food, vendors, more food, and entertainment!

Yes, today was the final day of this weekend’s epic 43rd annual Adams Avenue Street Fair!

This super popular street festival in Normal Heights is one of the biggest in San Diego. Indeed, it’s said to be Southern California’s largest free two-day music festival!

I walked along Adams Avenue, stomach rumbling from all the delicious smells. I stopped at several of the stages to listen to live music. Then, in the early afternoon, I enjoyed a performance by San Diego’s own Fern Street Circus!

The friendly folks in the next photo were representing the volunteer-based Adams Elementary Parent Teacher Community Organization. They were raising funds to support the neighborhood school. Check out their website here.

Have you seen the huge new Merrill Madness mural on Market Street in downtown San Diego?

The smiling guy in the next photo is one of the driving forces behind it: Marco (@marcticc).

Check out his website Marctic Creations for cool Padres related gear by clicking here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Clowns, history, and the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!

I was walking in front of the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park today when I thought to check the time. A performance would begin in five minutes! Okay, it had been a while, so I bought a ticket!

The show today concerned The Origin of Clowns.

Petrix the Clown took the stage and, with a gaggle of fun puppets, loosely (and humorously) told how clowns have evolved over the years–from the court fools, buffoons, and jesters to the improvisational commedia dell’arte, to European circus acts and mimes, and finally, to the American big top three-ring circus. The performance lasted perhaps twenty minutes.

If you have very young children, and you happen to be in Balboa Park on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, why not enjoy a happy puppet show? As a rule, performances are at 11 am, 1 and 3 pm. The shows change often, so you never know what to expect!

Oh–and more history. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2027. Expect big things!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Crazy circus comes to UC San Diego!

The circus has come to UC San Diego!

La Jolla Playhouse’s annual WOW (Without Walls) Festival is taking place this weekend at several venues on the UCSD campus. FLIP Fabrique, a circus group based in Quebec, Canada, has drawn crowds to the Warren Mall, which is the central gathering place for the 2025 WOW Festival.

FLIP Fabrique’s performance is titled Summer Break–and it’s no usual circus act. It’s more like playful, energetic theatre with amazing acrobatics and breathtaking circus stunts! It’s crazy fun!

From the windows of the vacation bus excited summer campers wave. They’ve arrived and adventures await!

There’s laughter, a camp counselor, a water fight, kayaking, roasting marshmallows, falling down from a high place while inside a sleeping bag (and thankfully bouncing), and an epic pillow fight!

Don’t believe me? I’ve got the photos!

This super fun, highly original performance returns tomorrow, Sunday, at 2:30 pm. To see the entire WOW Festival schedule, click here.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

An insane Halloween display in San Diego!

This front yard Halloween display has no equal in San Diego!

A wonderfully insane scene erected beside a sidewalk greets those passing through Serra Mesa. If you’ve driven down Murray Ridge Road, you’ve probably seen it.

This particular front yard has a history of immense displays that are jammed full of characters. The hand made figures are grimly humorous and madly inventive. The popular culture is often referenced, the San Diego Padres are rooted on, and our military is saluted. There’s politics mixed in too with a good helping of sarcasm.

Seeing all the bloody mayhem, one might develop goosebumps, or cringe, or laugh!

I’ve briefly spotted these crazy displays in years past. Because Halloween is approaching, I wanted a close look.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

A fun Abbott Elementary trolley for Comic-Con!

The third trolley wrap to appear in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024 promotes the ABC television series Abbott Elementary. And you can’t possibly miss it!

The fun circus graphics refer to the Abbott Elementary A.V.A. Fest (or A Very Abbott Festival), which originated in a classic episode in the show’s second season.

Critically acclaimed through its first three seasons, Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a fourth season. The humorous interactions of its well-rounded characters has kept the good-natured sitcom fresh and enjoyable!

Check out these photos taken today, about a month before the start of San Diego Comic-Con.

Excited yet?

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Love’s dance at La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW!

Stunning. Powerful. I’m not sure how I can adequately describe one performance today at the La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival.

Two acrobatic dancers from the Taiwanese circus troupe 0471 Acro Physical Theatre in their performance of Duo acted out the passion and turmoil of love. The crowd watching in UCSD’s Revelle Plaza was completely mesmerized.

Not only was the performing couple incredibly athletic, but they convincingly displayed the many emotions of troubled but enduring love. There was reluctance, passion, the pushing away, the pulling together. There were moments of sky reaching ecstasy.

There was interesting symbolism, too. It seemed to me the clothing they carried and displayed at times was symbolic of an ideal partner as lovers might see it. But the hesitation, indecision, conflict, resentment and other emotions made the actors, whirling about without that fancy clothing, more human, more true. Through the motion of their bodies, they transmitted their inner impulses and desires.

How the two acrobats could expressively move and fly about for half an hour nonstop was jaw-dropping. I thought their acting was even more impressive. It expressed what love is.

I saw people in the audience with hands over their heart.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Brave people confront danger in La Jolla!

Yesterday a group of unsuspecting people confronted imminent danger at UC San Diego in La Jolla!

The large group could not know the sort of peril they’d be facing. We had gathered in Revelle Plaza to witness a performance by Cirque Inextremiste, but many didn’t realize that WE would be the performers!

Yann Ecauvre appeared and proceeded to drag long, very heavy wooden beams out to the surrounding audience. He stood the beams on end and then had ordinary hands (some of which were rather small) hold them upright. When unsteady beams began to precariously tip, the danger was safely overcome. Whew!

Then audience members began to build a wooden structure made of more beams. Higher and increasingly impressive the construct grew . . . those vertically held beams were added . . . then a chain of courageous humans holding hands mounted the crazy, tipsy structure!

The performance was called Damoclès. It was part of this weekend’s free La Jolla Playhouse 2024 WOW event!

Would you like to bring out your own courage? Damoclès will be repeated this afternoon. See the 2024 Without Walls Festival schedule by clicking here!

(By the way–were you there? That was me, surprised, given a yellow danger tape necktie, and helping to hold up the second beam. Taking photos during the ordeal was a challenge!)

These kids were fearless!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Old-fashioned carnival at Hotel del Coronado!

An extraordinary event was enjoyed by a good crowd today at the Hotel del Coronado! The Seaside Victorian Carnival entertained hotel guests and the public with old-fashioned carnival games, food, jugglers, magicians, plate spinning, aerial silks, tightrope and other circus acts!

Tents on the beach featured nostalgic games like ring toss and penny pitch. Kids were having a blast trying to win a prize. Funds raised benefited a variety of charitable organizations in Coronado.

Several sand sculptures could also be enjoyed. And flying high above the sand were students from San Diego State University. Check out my photos of their amazing feats!

On the boardwalk, people lined up for caramel apples, chocolate kettle corn, giant pretzels and other yummy treats!

The main attraction was a slate of circus acts. I stayed awhile, watched several jugglers (one on stilts), an amazing chair stacker/balancer/juggler, and an aerialist smiling and spinning above a rapt audience!

Another perfect day at Coronado’s world-famous Victorian beach resort!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Fern Street Circus magic in City Heights!

San Diego’s own Fern Street Circus performed in City Heights today! They set up in Teralta Park and commenced their big show at 2 o’clock.

Many families in the community came out for the fun. City Heights was one stop during Fern Street Circus’s free Neighborhood Tour 2023!

As usual the skits were delightfully silly. A chicken was chased about with a net in order to make soup. Somehow that pollo always got away. Kids encouraged the bird to run, and laughed. Adults laughed, too.

And there was the happy, upbeat music and the audience singing along. Lyrics were all about the value of Cooperation.

And there was the hilarious ringmaster with his wonderfully absurd interjections.

And there were, of course, traditional circus acts galore, many featuring super talented circus students.

The whole experience was one of pure joy.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Festival of Love Parade through City Heights!

Before the start of today’s City Heights Multi-Cultural Festival of Love, there was a parade!

Smiling faces headed west down University Avenue, starting from The Neighborhood Cafe and Youth Print Shop. They arrived at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park near the City Heights Library just in time for the Festival of Love to begin!

The parade was a celebration of the City Heights community’s rich cultural diversity. And, of course, a celebration of love!

Surprised onlookers, standing on the sidewalk and in front yards, were urged to follow the parade to the fun Valentine’s Day themed Festival of Love!

I first spied the parade as it headed along University Avenue. I saw the Hoover High School marching band, lowriders and classic cars, the Fern Street Circus, and other local organizations from around the neighborhood.

My camera captured the excitement!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!