FAMILIES are invited to roll up, roll up to the County Ground while the circus is in town.

Acrobatics, juggling and daredevil motorcycle performances are just some of the treats in store for families who visit Uncle Sam’s Great American Circus this week.

The circus had to set up its big top on the County Ground car park after its usual haunt at Westcott Recreation Ground became waterlogged and Swindon Council agreed to let them use the site.

Ringmaster, Matthew Wingate, said: “We travel every week and we try to go to the majority of the country. We get all walks of life coming to see the circus, from the rich to the poor and from the tiny ones to the grandparents.

“It is something different in the town, you don’t have a permanent circus in Swindon.”

Hundreds of people came to watch them perform when they were at Westcott Recreation Ground last year, and Matthew said this year’s performance would be even better.

The show includes a wheel of death, Nickolino the clown, handbalancing, an acrobatic troupe, juggling and trapeze.

There are also death-defying thunderball riders who whizz round a giant metal ball at speeds of up to 60mph.

The circus discovered their usual site was waterlogged on Thursday and the council agreed they could use the County Ground instead.

The move has upset some nearby residents but Matthew said they were running the event responsibly.

Navigating the Magic Roundabout with their fleet of trucks had proved quite a challenge.

“It is lucky we could use this site, otherwise it would have meant everybody would have been out of work for a week, which wouldn’t be good,” he said.

“We probably would have moved on to the next place and started promoting there.”

There will be performances at 5pm and 7.30pm tonight, 1.30pm, 4pm and 6.30pm tomorrow and 2pm and 4.30pm on Sunday.

Tickets are available from the ticket office in the County Ground. For more information visit www.americancircus.co.uk