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08/11/2008
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Photo by JP Fortierfrom the Kennebec Journal
Sport of Kings
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All of today's:
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from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
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All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN -- Thirty feet above the crowd, the tightrope walker skipped rope, the wire beneath him bouncing with each hop.
Then he tripped and fell. Those in the circus tent the Skowhegan State Fair gave the requisite collective gasp as his feet went out from under him and he lunged, grabbed the wire in his hands and swung himself up and over into a sitting position. He let on it was an accident, and it was pretty convincing.
But he never lost his jump rope, and went on to perform for 10 more minutes to much applause. After that came a variety of spectacles, including a hula-hoop artist, acrobats and a pair of motorcyclists who rode loops and spirals inside a round steel cage, defying gravity and audience expectations that they might fall from the round ceiling and smash the female performer who stood stock-still below them at the bottom of the cage.
But 5-year-old Caleb Heald, of Albion, liked the performing Friesian horses the circus had brought from the Netherlands.
"It was very good," he said. "My favorite was the horses. I thought they were pretty."
The caged motorcyclers were all right, he said, but very loud.
"I liked them -- but at that point, my head nearly cracked open," he said. "It made me dizzy."
It was his second trip to the Skowhegan State Fair, and Caleb wasn't interested in standing around talking about it. As he set off in search of more fun, his parents, Kris and Gudrun Heald, trailed behind.
"As a family, we've only been here two times," Kris Heald said. "But I grew up here (in Skowhegan), so I grew up coming here."
One of the fair's directors, Walter Hight, was lingering in the beer garden watching horses and sulkies as they skimmed around the racetrack.
He was pleased with the absence of rain and said the sunshine was a factor in the increasing numbers of people in attendance.
That, and the circus, called Coronas of Hollywood, which is new this year to the Skowhegan State Fair and includes the performances under the big top as well as a collection of giraffes and other animals, Hight said.
"They love it. We've been getting calls with people telling us how great it is," he said. "They claim it is one hell of a show."
Joel Elliott -- 861-9252
jelliott@centralmaine.com
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