30th Monte Carlo Festival

Alexis Gruss and Fredy Knie
Maude Gruss, Geraldine Knie, Alexis Gruss, Fredy Knie

Knie elephants

Courtesy of Vincent Manero

Fabulous pictures. I am going to hang onto the one of Alexis and Fredy. That will be "historical material" some day. Great crowds. It's unfortunate there are 365 days in a year instead of 10, and you could survive on that 10. I have been having an enlightening conversation with a number of fans from both sides of the pond about pictures and web sites, and the changes. Here in America, an number of the circus related sites have a great number of what are called "back yard" scenes, performers being normals folks, caring for the animals, cleaning equiptment, loading, unloading. etc. etc. Look at the "history channel" with the historic photos of folks being folks. In Europe there are a mass of great sites, but very few photos of folks being folks, yes there is occasionally the exception, such as the recent set up of the American Circus with great shots of Flavio, Alex. Rare exceptions. For the most part they are pictures of the performance or setting up and tearing down of the tent and photos of the equipment. A young lad named Kevin has a great Charles Knie site. The back yard looks like a ghost town in thousands of pictures, but the trucks and tent and the performance is there by the 100's.
Anybody seen any photos on the internet of folks just being folks in Monte Carlo. Seen any of the animals being taken care of, looked after, "backyard" photo which are common on American sites. Has anybody seen any photos of Monte Carlo judges being just folks or offering insight and/or opinions. There a lots of such photos available during the Arabian Nationals, before and after, There are loads of such photos taken during the National Finals Rodeo. The list goes on and on. I could reference right now over a dozen opinions of judges of these events above, photos, etc. etc. Is there not a "back yard" in Europe or do they do a performance and go away?
I have been there and I know better, but what a great marketing idea other similar venues have to account for their success. Show me a site with performers being folks in the back yard, and I will point you to dozens and dozens of circus performers being folks in the "back yard" here.