Illinois State University’s Gamma Phi Circus will present its 71st
annual show under the familiar Redbird Arena “bigtop” on April 20 and 21.
This year’s show will be at 7 p.m. both days in Redbird Arena. Tickets are available at Redbird Arena and the Bone Student Center box office. Tickets for the Normal show are $12 for adults ($10 if purchased in advance), and $10 for children 5 to 12 ($8 when purchased in advance). Children 5 and younger are admitted free.
Established in 1929 as a fraternity dedicated to physical education, fitness and gymnastics, Gamma Phi performed its first public gymnastic circus show three years later. The oldest collegiate circus in the country, Gamma Phi performers have juggled, tumbled, balanced, tight-wired and much more for hundreds of thousands of “children of all ages.”
As Gamma Phi members in the early years met and exchanged ideas with Bloomington-Normal’s many professional circus families (Bloomington was the winter home for many famous trapeze acts since before the turn of the century), Gamma Phi Circus began to include more than just gymnastics, adding tight wire, trapeze, teeterboard, partner balancing, rolling globes and more to the annual shows.
Members of Gamma Phi are in charge of the show (under director Al Light’s supervision), developing and learning their own acts, making the costumes, creating the publicity material, selling tickets and selling advertising for the program book.
