Circus confusion

Times Contributor     

 

When a circus comes to town, there is usually a lot of commotion while acts unpack and set up. For the appearance of Magicland Circus, held June 4, at the Civic Centre, the commotion was around confusing ticket sales.

The Town of Strathmore staff booked the event, posters were placed around town and Lar-Don Rentals agreed to sell advanced tickets for the event. 

However, Carolyn Larden began to suspect the Circus may not have been on the up and up, when she couldn’t get any information about them verified, or find a contact number for the group. When they didn’t appear at the agreed set up time on the day of performance, she shut down sales. 

Shortly before the first performance time, Larden said a man appeared at her store requesting money for the show. Larden replied if he could supply identification, to verify he was indeed with the circus, she would release the money and remaining tickets. No adequate identification was shown. 

“I was suspicious that it was a scam, because they could not produce ID,” said Larden.

Larden said a little later, another man appeared; quite upset the funds were not released and accused her of fraud. Again she requested identification that linked them to the circus and it was not produced. Larden refused to release the money, suspicious they would leave town without delivering a show, leaving residents in the lurch.  

She said it came to her attention that attractions advertised on the posters were not part of the show. 

“Children would be very disillusioned when what was advertised wasn’t in the show. Several people complimented me for looking out for them,” said Larden. 

Larden said the Town should be ashamed that they did not research the company better and felt the booking processes should be improved for future events.

The circus troupe did provide two performances in one section of the Civic gym. The acts were acrobats, a clown and a trained dog act. The owners let people with presold tickets into the show, regardless of the dispute.

Larden said the money for the tickets she sold were refunded back to any purchasers who produced tickets. She kept records of the tickets and amounts sold. There are seven yet unclaimed. She said refunds for those would be given back when the identified tickets are produced. If no one reclaims the money, it will be forwarded to charity in one year.