Named for the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Circus — about a little boy who invents his own, elaborate circus spectacle — the Bay area's Circus McGurkis is an annual creative celebration advocating love, community and the ability of nonviolence to change the world.
Conceived in 1971, Circus McGurkis persists in featuring a wide variety of craftspeople, artists, professional reformers, musicians, inventors, jugglers and dancers, as well as political, social and special concerns groups.
For additional information, visit www.circusmcgurkis.org. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., Oct. 29. Walter Fuller Park, 7891 26th Ave. N., St. Petersburg.
For an outdoor event of a more refined sort, Bay area folks have two separate opportunities to see Susan Haig conduct the Florida Orchestra through a free program at this weekend's Pops in the Park concerts. Highlights include Johann Strauss, Jr.'s Thunder and Lightning Polka; the Allegro vivace movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4; selections from Phantom of the Opera; a Broadway salute, with numbers like "My Favorite Things" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses"; music from The Lord of the Rings; and a spectacular finale of fireworks set to the music of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
For more information, visit www.floridaorchestra.org. 7 p.m. Fri., Oct. 28, Curtis Hixon Park, Ashley Drive and Zack Street, downtown Tampa; and noon on Tues., Nov. 1, Lykes Gaslight Park, 415 N. Franklin St., downtown Tampa.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2005.