A custom red-and-white big top has gone up at Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park, and it belongs to Venardos Circus, an animal-free touring production performing its show Far Beyond every night except Mondays and Tuesdays through Sept. 7. The show features jugglers, aerialists, acrobats and comedians set to original music, with a singing ringmaster named Addison Clover leading the audience through a storyline about dreams, their fulfillment, and people's shared responsibility to keep reaching far beyond.
According to the Tacoma News Tribune, founder Kevin Venardos told the paper, “This has been a dream in the making for a long time.” Venardos built his circus after an unusual first act in the industry: as reported by CBS News, he became one of the youngest ringmasters in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus history at age 22 before leaving after five years to start his own traveling circus in 2014.
Far Beyond is one of two productions Venardos Circus currently tours. The company runs two units simultaneously — the Andi unit, which performs a show centered on Alice in Wonderland, and the Billie unit, which is bringing Far Beyond to Tacoma. Both units are named after Kevin Venardos's daughters. Before arriving in Washington, the Billie unit performed at Zidell Yards in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 1.
A Big Top on Reclaimed Ground
The tent sits at 5501 North Pearl St., inside the 11-acre waterfront section of Point Defiance Park known as Dune Peninsula, which is operated by Metro Parks Tacoma and opened to the public in July 2019. The site's history adds an unusual layer to the circus's arrival: Dune Peninsula was built atop a former toxic slag deposit left by the Asarco copper smelter, which ran for nearly a century before the federal government designated it an EPA Superfund site in 1983, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.
The peninsula's name honors Tacoma-born science fiction author Frank Herbert, whose experience living near the polluting smelter influenced his 1965 novel Dune, per Seattle's Child. It's a fitting backdrop for a production built around themes of reaching beyond limitations, even if the connection is coincidental to the circus's own tour schedule.
Inside the Tent and Under the Big Top
Venardos Circus performs inside a custom red-and-white big top handcrafted in Italy, designed to keep every seat close to the single ring even during high aerial acts, per Venardos Circus. Far Beyond features specialty performers including hand-balancer The Great Rokardy, diabolo juggler Edge Szumowski, and cloud-swing aerialist Tink, according to Visit Tacoma-Pierce County, with acts built around cloud-swinging flights and juggling set against original music.
The circus opens its doors 60 minutes before each showtime for pre-show activities like juggling workshops and face painting, and it enforces a strict peanut-free policy for concessions, which lean on house-made treats such as pink lemonade and popcorn. Adult general admission tickets are priced at $28.95, and the production markets itself as a family-friendly, Broadway-style, animal-free reimagining of the traditional American circus that combines storytelling with circus artistry.
Part of a Wider Shift Away From Animal Acts
Venardos Circus's animal-free format fits into a broader change across American live entertainment. The Humane Society of the United States notes that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey itself eliminated live animals when it relaunched its own touring show in 2023, part of a trend that has seen dozens of countries and U.S. municipalities restrict or ban performing wild animals.
After wrapping in Tacoma, Far Beyond moves on to Stocker Farms in Snohomish, with a run scheduled from Sept. 11 through Sept. 20, giving Pacific Northwest fans another chance to catch the show before it continues touring outdoor and commercial sites nationally into late fall.
