Encore: Flynn Creek Rises, Calistoga Reclaims Its Fairgrounds
By Tim Carl
Summary: Flynn Creek Circus returns to Calistoga for the first time since 2019, bringing its no-net, family-run performances back to a community and fairgrounds emerging from pandemic and institutional hiatus. The visit marks both an evolution for the circus — with new acts, sustainable practices and a second-generation performer stepping forward — and a milestone in Calistoga’s effort to restore the 70-acre fairgrounds as a vital civic space. Together, the tent’s return and the grounds’ revival reflect themes of resilience, risk and renewal.
Flynn Creek Rises, Calistoga Reclaims Its Fairgrounds
By Tim Carl
CALISTOGA, Calif. — The last time Flynn Creek Circus raised its tent at the Calistoga Fairgrounds back in 2019, children spent the afternoon gazing up in wide-eyed wonder as acrobats spun through the air. By night, the mood shifted. Adults blushed and laughed their way through a bawdy adults-only performance. Popcorn and cotton candy scented the air. The fairgrounds glowed against the dark.
Then the curtain dropped.
The pandemic shuttered stages and left the fairgrounds silent.
Flynn Creek is a Mendocino-based company that tours throughout California and the Pacific northwest, bringing its all-human, no-net performances to small towns that rarely see a circus under canvas. In 2023 I caught up with them in Mendocino, where the same tension and beauty still held audiences — the creak of rigging, the pause before release, the gasp as a body arced across the tent. We spoke about returning to Calistoga someday, though at the time everything was uncertain.
This October, the return becomes real.
A Circus Evolved
Founded in 2002 by Blaze Birge and David Jones — known worldwide as the Daring Jones Duo — Flynn Creek Circus has always thrived on real risk. No nets, no illusions. If the trapeze swings, the fall is real. If knives fly, they cut air.
“Since 2019 we have changed, evolved, grown in multiple ways,” Birge said.
In 2022 the troupe unveiled a tent of its own design. Pandemic adjustments reshaped the experience into cabaret-style seating with table service and pre-orders for drinks and snacks. Their newest show, “The Bridge,” draws on Nordic legend, blending archetypal characters with comedy and metaphor.
The company has expanded its apprenticeship program for young performers, gone fully solar at its Mendocino base and converted all concessions to bioplastics, glass, paper or aluminum. Travel visa hurdles have curtailed overseas talent, so domestic artists now fill the bill.
Family in Flight
Flynn Creek remains a family enterprise. Jacy, the daughter of Birge and Jones, grew up in the tent. Now 18 and freshly graduated from high school, she is deciding her next chapter.
“Jacy had just graduated high school with honors and continues to work as an artist for the show,” Birge said. “This year she is featured in the tramp wall act, Russian swing act, swinging cloud swing and static cloud swing. She is taking a gap year before attending college and is still considering taking over the family business after getting her Ph.D.”
For audiences, Jacy’s presence underscores what has always set Flynn Creek apart — the interweaving of family and performance, risk and trust. Jacy has been in the spotlight since she was a child, growing up under the canvas while her parents flew overhead. Now she steps away for a time, with college and new ambitions ahead, before perhaps returning to carry on what they built.
It’s a rhythm familiar to many in Napa Valley, where family enterprises pass through generations, reshaped but never entirely severed. Each leap on the Russian swing, each suspended moment on the cloud swing ties the family’s story to the larger narrative of circus: discipline and danger carried across generations, unfolding night after night in front of strangers who become witnesses.
A Fairgrounds Finding its Footing
The circus’s return also marks a milestone for Calistoga. The 70-acre Calistoga Fairgrounds, formerly home to the Napa County Fair, car races and graduations, had fallen into disrepair before the city reacquired the property from Napa County in 2024.
Fairgrounds revitalization director Sheli Wright called Flynn Creek’s arrival part of a larger plan: “The circus is a fun, family-friendly event, and part of our broader goal is to make the fairgrounds a space that is actively used and enjoyed by the community,” she said.
According to Wright, since May’s inaugural Ag Day, the city has repaired bathrooms and grandstands, restored heating and cooling in the Tucker Room, reopened adjoining restrooms and prepared the Tubbs Building for rentals. Work is underway to certify the Tubbs Kitchen for public use. Beyond the circus, programming includes emergency response trainings, Tour de Calistoga, a hazardous waste event and the final jaripeo of the season tied to Hispanic Heritage Month. Looking to 2026, plans call for a Memorial Weekend Ag & Natural Resource Day, a Calistoga Wine Competition, a car show, sprint-car races and more.
What Endures
Circus is made to vanish. The sawdust smell, the ropes under strain, the breath held as a body arcs through the air — gone in an instant. That is what gives it force. And that is what makes Flynn Creek’s return so striking. After years of uncertainty, the tent will rise again in Calistoga. Children will look up in awe. And for that moment, the fairgrounds will shine like they once did.
Tickets and Showtimes
Flynn Creek Circus presents “The Bridge” at the Calistoga Fairgrounds, 1435 North Oak St.
Friday, Oct. 10
7 p.m. — Adults Only (21+)Saturday, Oct. 11
1 p.m.
4 p.m.
7 p.m. — Adults Only (21+)Sunday, Oct. 12
1 p.m. — Family Special ($10 off table reservations)
4 p.m.
Seating ranges from bar-stool tickets at $23 to front-row VIP tables at $190. Sales at the Big Top Bar support Circus Mentors Inc., a nonprofit expanding performing-arts access in rural communities.
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Tim Carl is a Napa Valley-based photojournalist.
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What a wonderful performance for the community! I plan to invite family and friends to join one of the shows! Thank you for covering this, NVF!
proximity of the event, and handicapped access