After 100-plus years of serving up top-flight entertainment, one might think the San Juan County Fair had seen it all.

Turns out that’s not so.

That’s because this year… drumroll, please…the circus is coming to town.

That’s right. The Wenatchee Youth Circus is headed into the heart of the Salish Sea with its colorful cast of characters, inspiring team of tumblers and host of hair-raising high-wire acts in tow, for what many believe will be the first-ever performance of its kind inside the venerable, August Friday Harbor fairgrounds.

“It’s a perfect fit for the fair,” says Fair Production Manager Reve Shannon, and, situated in the celebrated “Triangle” near the main entrance in between the carnival rides and horse arena, it’s not only the featured attraction of the 2014 fair, it’ll be extremely hard to miss.

With four daily performances, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., each about 40 minutes long, the regionally renowned Wenatchee troupe will no doubt be busy little beavers.

“Having something big and fun for the whole family to enjoy, front and center at the fair, it really is just what we wanted,” Shannon said. “There’s a lot of good kid things this year, the circus is one of them. And, they are really good.”

Known far and wide as the “Biggest Little Circus in the World,” the Wenatchee Youth Circus, a non-professional outfit, offers up everything you might expect from a Ringling Brothers or Barnum & Bailey; jugglers, clowns, trampolines, fire-breathers, trapeze performers, sequined costumes… everything, that is, except lions, tigers and bears.

The Circus, which features an ever-changing cast of about 45 young performers, ages 3-18, has showcased its talents for a combined audience of more than two million during 60-plus years of mostly summertime performances up and down the West Coast; southern California to Alaska, across the western United States and with countless stops in Canada, as well.

While the four-day circus extravaganza marks a first for the fair, the Wenatchee Youth Circus is no stranger to San Juan Island. Over the years, its shows have regularly been featured at Roche Harbor Resort.

Practice begins indoors early in the year for the performers, a mix of veteran entertainers and first-timers. Traveling and performing on the summer circuit is the culmination of months of practice and endless hours of hard work.

In fact, it was the benefit that children gain from setting goals, staying focused and striving hard to achieve them, that retired junior high school principal Paul K. Pugh (aka Guppo the Clown) had in mind more than 60 years ago when he turned what at the time was an extra-curricular group of young co-ed tumblers into a full-blown, traveling band of circus performers.

The Wenatchee Youth Circus has been on a roll ever since.

For more info, visit www.wenatcheeyouthcircus.com.