Noticed a giant tent by the Bellingham waterfront? A locally-run circus is coming to town

If you’ve driven through downtown Bellingham lately, chances are you noticed the red and white tent set up by Waypoint Park.

Starting later this week, the tent will be home to Shoestring Circus. The circus opens Friday, June 7, with shows running every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday through June 23.

Shoestring was started in 2022 by a group of four veteran circus performers, Nicole Laumb, Justin Therrien, Sadye Osterloh, and Poki McCorkle. This will be its second run on the waterfront, after a 14-show run last May.

“The opportunity came up to buy this big top tent from a company in California,” Laumb told the Bellingham Herald ahead of Shoestring’s rehearsal on Tuesday morning. It’s a company that I worked with for many years and this tent was very special to me… so when the chance came up to buy it, we all jumped [at] it, ‘let’s give it a go.’ We thought we’ve maybe done enough to be able to make it ourselves, and we really wanted to make a circus artist-owned circus company, and bring it to Washington.”

Osterloh and McCorkle were based in Bellingham at the time, and Therrien had lived in town in the past, so the quartet decided it was the perfect place to start their act.

“There’s a really fascinating hub of circus in Bellingham, and it’s kind of known in the circus world that there’s a lot of really high-skilled folks out here because of the guild,” Laumb said.

After their inaugural run last year, the group said they were surprised by how the community received the shows.

“That was incredible. We did 14 shows and every show sold out after opening night. People really responded to our style of circus and the kind of acts we were bringing in, so we were like ‘let’s do it again,’” Laumb said.

What is a Shoestring Circus show?

This year’s expanded Shoestring run will feature 20 shows, with each act tied together by the medieval-fantasy themed storyline.

“There’s a medieval element to this but there’s also a fantasy element to this. Half of the show takes place in the ‘stringdom,’ the other half takes place in the fantasy land we have to travel to to solve our problem,” Laumb said.

Storytelling is an important element of Shoestring’s show, according to Laumb.

“It’s a bit more contemporary, but not in the ways people would think. It’s contemporary in that we’re a very absurd, silly, fun show,” Laumb said. “And we mix in a lot of high level skill and a big variety of acts. But it is more on the line of circus theater. So there’s no red-nose clowns or a ringmaster, but what we do always have is a narrative and through-line characters.”

Shoestring also expanded its cast this year, with 12 performers, up from nine in 2023. Among the newcomers is Colin Creveling, a tightrope walker based in northern California. Creveling said he was drawn to the Shoestring team because of how collaborative it is.

“It’s very heart-forward. Everyone here are veterans of circus and of building ensemble-based work, which is definitely where my interest is… From pounding stakes, setting up the tent, to actually building the show itself, it’s all really deeply collaborative,” Creveling said.

How to buy tickets

Tickets cost $32 for general admission and $48 for a spot in the front row. Children under the age of 12 can get in for $16. The shows are open to all ages and tickets are available on the circus’s website.

Shows are scheduled for the following times:

• June 7 at 7:00 p.m.

• June 8 at 1:00, 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.

• June 9 at 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

• June 13 at 7:00 p.m.

• June 14 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.

• June 15 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.

• June 16 at 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

• June 20 at 7:00 p.m.

• June 21 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.

• June 22 at 1:00, 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.

• June 23 at 1:00 p.m.

Following the Bellingham shows, the circus will travel to Olympia, where it will perform between June 28 and July 7. If all goes according to plan, Shoestring will look to expand to more cities in the next few years.

“We always want to be this kind of an intimate setting… I think we’ll build up to three or four months in a summer of finding communities that like what we do and we bring them a new show every year,” Laumb said.

This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 1:16 PM.