Massive tent takes shape at Lakeside Church ahead of Sept. 4 opening of all-new “Masquerade” production
It’s one of those unmistakable sights that tells Folsom the circus has come to town – the rising of the Big Top.
The massive white-and-blue Big Top of Circus Vargas rose above the corner of Oak Avenue Parkway and East Bidwell Street Wednesday as crews transformed the grounds at Lakeside Church into a temporary home for one of California’s longest-running traveling circuses.
The tent raising marks one of the final and most visible preparations ahead of Friday’s official opening of Circus Vargas’ all-new 2026 production, “Masquerade,” beginning a more than two-week Folsom engagement that continues through Sept. 21.
For motorists passing one of the city’s busiest intersections Wednesday, the rising tent was hard to miss. What had been open space beside Lakeside Church was quickly taking on the familiar appearance of a traveling circus compound, with the towering Big Top at its center.
And unlike a production arriving at an established theater or arena, Circus Vargas brings the theater with it.
The tent, equipment and production infrastructure travel from city to city along with the performers and crew. At each stop, the circus creates a temporary entertainment venue, welcomes audiences beneath the canvas and, when the final performance ends, takes it all down and moves on.
This week, that traveling tradition has landed once again in Folsom.
Crews worked Wednesday to raise and secure the massive structure that will soon be filled with lights, music, performers and spectators. Final preparations will continue ahead of Friday, when the first local audience of the 2026 engagement takes its seats beneath the Big Top.
Circus Vargas comes to Folsom after completing its Sacramento-area engagement at Westfield Galleria in Roseville on Aug. 31. The move east puts Folsom next on the tour schedule, with performances beginning Friday and continuing through Monday, Sept. 21.
While the Big Top has become a familiar sight during the circus’ annual visits to Folsom, what happens beneath it changes each year.
For 2026, that show is “Masquerade.” The new production is built around a theatrical world of mystery, colorful costumes, music and dramatic lighting surrounding an international cast of performers whose acts combine athleticism, precision, comedy and showmanship.
Circus Vargas describes the theme as a place where “mystery meets mastery,” with the atmosphere beginning from the moment audiences enter the tent and continuing as one act gives way to the next.
At the heart of it all remains something increasingly uncommon in an entertainment world dominated by screens — everything happening in front of the audience is live.
Aerialists soar overhead. Acrobats perform just feet from the seats. High-wire artists work above the ring while jugglers, comedians and specialty performers take their turns beneath them.
Among the featured attractions in “Masquerade” are aerialist Liina, the Meza Troupe and its high-wire artistry, the Faltyny family with unicycle and juggling performances, Freedom of Art with hand-balancing, archery by Martii and Liina, hula hoop artistry by Vlastia and quick-change performers Emelin and Dasha.
The production also brings the steel globe back to the ring, where motorcycle riders race around one another inside the confined sphere in a carefully choreographed display of speed, timing and precision.
All of it unfolds within the relatively intimate surroundings of the Big Top.
That closeness is part of what separates Circus Vargas from productions staged in large arenas. There are no distant upper decks where performers become tiny figures far below. Under the tent, audiences are close enough to see the concentration on performers’ faces and experience aerial acts happening overhead.
It is also one of the reasons the circus’ ringmaster, Johnathan Lee Iverson, has said Circus Vargas can connect so strongly with an audience.
Iverson returns to Folsom this year to guide audiences through “Masquerade,” bringing with him a remarkable career that stretches from Harlem to Madison Square Garden and eventually to the Circus Vargas ring.
A native of New York City, Iverson began performing with the Boys Choir of Harlem, an experience he previously told Folsom Times helped establish the discipline and expectations that would shape the rest of his career. As a young performer, he traveled internationally and shared stages with some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Just years later, Iverson stepped into one of the most recognizable roles in American entertainment.
In 1998, at just 22 years old, he became the youngest and first African American ringmaster in the history of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. He remained with the legendary circus until its 2017 closing, becoming the last ringmaster of its original 146-year run.
Over the course of his career, Iverson has shared stages with artists including Lena Horne, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Luciano Pavarotti, Roberta Flack, Plácido Domingo and Tony Bennett. He has performed before Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and four U.S. presidents, was selected as one of Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People” and has even appeared twice as the subject of clues on “Jeopardy!”
But despite a résumé that has taken him around the world, Iverson has developed a particular affection for the audience here in Folsom.
During last year’s Circus Vargas engagement, Iverson told Folsom Times that Folsom’s audience stands out for its enthusiasm and appreciation.
“Folsom is an awesome audience,” Iverson said at the time. “They are so engaged and remarkably appreciative of what we do at Circus Vargas.”
He has also spoken about the difference between performing with a massive arena circus and the experience audiences receive beneath the Circus Vargas tent.
“Circus Vargas is far more intimate,” Iverson told Folsom Times last year. “The magic and wonder of what we do is in your lap.”
That intimacy is something Circus Vargas has increasingly embraced during a history stretching back more than half a century.
The story began with Clifford E. Vargas, who founded Circus Vargas in California in 1969.
Vargas, born in 1924 and raised on a farm near Livermore as the son of Portuguese immigrants, developed a fascination with traveling circuses as a child. Whenever a circus came through the area, he was drawn to the spectacle surrounding the Big Top.
That childhood fascination eventually became a career.
Vargas worked his way through the circus business, including jobs as a ticket seller and doorman before becoming a ringmaster. He later invested in the Miller-Johnson Circus in the early 1970s and built what would become Circus Vargas into a major traveling production.
At its peak, Circus Vargas became known for an enormous tent reportedly the size of a football field, requiring a crew of roughly 30 workers and hours of labor to raise.
The circus continued evolving after Vargas died in 1989. Management passed through several hands before rising operating costs and changes in the entertainment industry led to a transition toward a smaller, more intimate European-style one-ring format.
Another major chapter began in 2005 when Katya Arata Quiroga and her husband, Nelson Quiroga, took over the production.
Both come from deep circus roots, and today the seventh-generation circus performers continue to own and operate Circus Vargas while developing a new production for each touring season.
The circus has also changed with the times. Its modern productions are animal-free and place the focus entirely on human performance — aerialists, acrobats, daredevils, comedians and other specialty performers drawn from around the world.
Yet one of its most recognizable traditions remains exactly what Folsom saw happening Wednesday: the circus still arrives with a Big Top.
More than 57 years after Circus Vargas was founded in California, crews still travel from community to community, raise the tent and create a temporary gathering place where families sit together around a ring to watch performers accomplish things that cannot be paused, replayed or swiped away.
That live connection is something Circus Vargas has emphasized as part of its longevity.
In an era where children and adults alike spend hours interacting with phones, tablets, televisions and other digital entertainment, the circus offers an experience built around a shared moment. Parents and children watch the same aerialist leave the platform, the same performer step onto the high wire and the same stunt unfold before them.
The gasps, laughter and applause happen together.
Iverson told Folsom Times last year that while children have always had distractions, it remains the performers’ responsibility to give them something worth watching.
“It’s our job to give them something worth being captivated by,” he said.
That philosophy helps explain why a form of entertainment with roots stretching back generations continues to find audiences today.
For some parents and grandparents, walking beneath the Big Top recalls circus visits from their own childhood. For younger spectators, Friday may be the first time they walk beneath a towering canvas tent, find a seat around the ring and look upward as an aerialist flies overhead.
And for Circus Vargas itself, Folsom has become a familiar stop along the way.
Last year, as the Big Top was being raised for the circus’ previous Folsom engagement, Iverson recently told Folsom Times the company looked forward to returning.
“Circus Vargas is always anxious to get back to the great city of Folsom,” he said. “The presence and energy of the Folsom audience is truly second to none.”
Now, nearly a year later, the circus has returned once again. Tickets for the 2026 Folsom engagement are on sale now, Options range from Back Arena and several arena sections to Ringside Reserved and the VIP experience. Children younger than 2 are admitted free when seated on an adult’s lap, while child, senior and military discounts are available. Additional information, showtimes and tickets are available at CircusVargas.com.
Circus Vargas presents “Masquerade” Sept. 4-21 at Lakeside Church, 745 Oak Avenue Parkway, near the corner of Oak Avenue Parkway and East Bidwell Street in Folsom. Individual performance times vary throughout the engagement. After Wednesday’s tent raising, however, the countdown to opening night is clearly visible. The Big Top is up. The circus is back in Folsom. And Friday, the lights come on for “Masquerade.”
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