By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
One of the benefits of warm weather from mid-spring to mid-autumn is the area visitation by outdoor, under-the-Big-Top circuses.There are many different touring circuses that touch down in the area each year. However, when the temperatures begin to drop, these circuses head south.
The last two touring circuses of the season have arrived this weekend – the Paranormal Cirque and the The UniverSoul Circus
The intriguing Paranormal Cirque (https://paranormalcirque.com), which is intended for a mature audience, is in the final weekend of its run throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic – the last 2025 performances north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
The circus wraps up its visit with performances now through October 27 at Philadelphia Premium Outlets, which are located at 18 Lightcap Road in Pottstown.
Shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on October 24, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. on October 25, 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. on October 26 and 7:30 p.m. on October 27.
Paranormal Cirque will expose audiences to a unique creation of combined theatre, circus, and cabaret with a new European style flare.
This innovative horror story, which is presented in true circus style under a Big Top tent, features different shades of sexy and an incomparable storyline.
Audiences likely will find it difficult to separate reality from illusion at this show as they fall into a parallel world and end up surrounded by monstrous creatures with hidden talents.
Currently, Paranormal Cirque has three tours running – Paranormal Cirque, Paranormal Cirque II and Paranormal Cirque III. The tour visiting our area is Paranormal Cirque III
Paranormal Cirque’s “Clown Castle” (also known as the Big Top) presents a mesmerizing effect while hosting a two-hour hypnotizing and enchanted show.
A careful casting selection has united the best artists from all over the world.
Under this Clown Castle, the black and red big top tent, there are aerial acrobats, illusionists, freaks, mysterious creatures and all the elements that make one think of a “normal” circus – but this one is not “normal.”
A new show with breathtaking implications always poised between fun and the most uninhibited fear that will transport you to a dark world inhabited by creatures with incredible circus art abilities.
A crazy yet fun fusion between circus, theatre, and cabaret in perfect harmony with the evolution of a show that brings you back to when we dream … and when we had nightmares and fantasies.
Video link for Paranormal Cirque — https://youtu.be/locxFnh5UR8.
Ticket prices start at $20.
The UniverSoul Circus (52nd Street and Parkside Avenue, Philadelphia, 800-345-7000, www.universoulcircus.com), will run through November 16, is offering something different for circus fans.The performances, which will be held in the UniverSoul Big Top at 3901 West Girard Avenue in Philadelphia, blend traditional circus attractions with urban culture, hip hop tunes and world beat music.
Celebrating its 26th anniversary in Philadelphia, UniverSoul Circus has come full circle in its influence in the international entertainment marketplace — garnering the distinction of being known as a one-of-a-kind, must see attraction.
Since its first performance in 1994, UniverSoul Circus has presented more than 12,000 performances to live audiences and has been seen in more than 60 million households on both local and national television networks.
UniverSoul Circus connects with progressive, upwardly mobile, urban pop cultures from around the world. Celebrating more than two decades under the big top, UniverSoul Circus features music, theatrical performances and incredible circus acts.
UniverSoul Circus is rated as one of the top two circuses along with Cirque du Soleil.
The circus will be in town now through November 16 at its site across from the Philadelphia Zoo. Ticket prices start at $33.
On October 25, SRUTI (www.sruti.org) will present a Carnatic Vocal Concert by Sanjay Subrahmanyam.
The concert, which will start at 4:30 p.m., will be held at West Chester School District’s Fugett Middle School Auditorium (500 Ellis Lane, West Chester).
SRUTI, The India Music and Dance Society is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. Every year, around 10 or more world class music and dance recitals are presented during the Spring and Fall seasons by SRUTI in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Subrahmanyan, born into a family deeply rooted in Carnatic music in Chennai, breathed in the melodies of the genre from the very air around him — the resonating strains of Carnatic music legends emanating from radios, tape recorders, and gramophones.
Subrahmanyan’s passion for the art form ignited at a tender age. Under the tutelage of esteemed gurus such as V. Lakshminarayana, Rukmini Rajagopalan, Calcutta K.S. Krishnamurthi, and later, S.R.D. Vaidyanathan, he honed his skills in both violin and vocal disciplines.
His performances epitomize a rare fusion of mastery and intellectual depth, blending the authoritative essence of tradition with the innovative spirit of a prodigious artist.
Subrahmanyan’s repertoire is a testament to his ceaseless quest for musical exploration, characterized by a harmonious blend of unconventional ragas alongside timeless classics like Todi and Sankarabharanam, each rendition imbued with fresh interpretations.
In 2015, Subrahmanyan’s illustrious journey reached a pinnacle when he was bestowed with the prestigious title of Sangita Kalanidhi by the Madras Music Academy, a natural culmination of his unwavering dedication and artistic brilliance.
Subrahmanyan will be accompanied by Neyveli B Venkatesh, a Chennai-based mridangam player.
His rhythm training began under his father AS Balaramanan, and continued under PP Venkatesan and MN Kandaswamy Pillai. His promising career has already featured top accompaniment slots and numerous collaborations, and he is renowned for superb solo performances.
The show at Fugett Middle School on October 25 will start at 4:30 p.m.
Tickets are $40 for adults, $25 for seniors and free for students.
Another interesting concert this weekend will be performed by Chesco Pops (www.chescopops.org).
On October 26, Chesco Pops will perform its Classic Remix Halloween Series at Immaculata University’s Alumnae Hall at 3 p.m.
This program features familiar classical themes with a twist.
Attendees can get “Hooked on Classics” as the Chesco Pops perform some favorite classical melodies with a new twist. Composer-In-Residence Joseph Lorini has also crafted a unique version of Ravel’s “Bolero” that incorporates several Andera Bocelli songs which will be performed by Lyndsay Varsaci Spaziani and Michael Spaziani.
As always, this Halloween series invites children to come to the concert dressed in costume. It is billed as an entertaining concert for the whole family.
Tickets are $25 – seniors, $20. Children and students are admitted free to all Chesco Pops concerts.
Longwood Gardens (Route 1, Kennett Square, 610-388-1000, www.longwoodgardens.org) is a great place to visit any time in the year and always has special attractions to add to the experience.
Longwood’s Chrysanthemum Festival is running through November 16.
Innovative plant-growing techniques and displays take center stage by way of thousands of trained chrysanthemums throughout our Conservatory.
Big, bold colors and thousands of carefully nurtured and trained chrysanthemums abound during this imaginative display serving as the largest and oldest of its kind in North America.
Throughout the Conservatory, specialty chrysanthemum forms from fanciful clouds to sculptural spirals not only showcase our horticultural savvy but help preserve an ancient Asian artform that we are beyond proud to perpetuate.
Daily performances in the Main Fountain Garden will feature more than 1,700 spinning jets that spin dance to various music programs. These are no little jets as some shoot up as high as 175 feet in the air.
Admission to Longwood Gardens is $35 for adults, $31 for seniors (ages 62 and older) and college students, $26 for active military and veterans and $20 for youth (ages 5-18).
The Delaware River waterfront hosts a number of cultural celebrations each year during the PECO Multicultural Series.
This weekend, it’s the Philippines’ turn to be in the spotlight along the Delaware River.
“Taste of the Philippines USA 2025” will be held on October 25.
Visitors will be able to celebrate and experience a taste of the Philippines with fantastic cuisine, entertainment, a marketplace, and more.
The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, phillyexpocenter.com) hosts the 83rd Philly Non-Sports Card Show on October 25 and 26.
There are two basic categories of trading cards — sports cards and non-sports cards.
Sports cards depict athletes at all levels. Non-sport cards offer so much more. There are card sets dealing with music, movies, politics, nature, pop culture and history.
For more than a century, non-sport trading cards have documented trends in pop culture – providing people with history lessons provided by small, rectangular pieces of cardboard.
Twice each year, collectors from across the country come together in eastern Pennsylvania for this very special event. The event is the oldest show of its kind in the country.
Many of the hobby’s top manufacturers will have exhibit booths at this weekend’s show and will be distributing free promo cards. There will be a huge array of non-sport cards, sets, singles, wrappers, chase cards, promos, and related memorabilia.
Some of the artists who will be featured guests are Sam Barugh, Jason Crosby and Mike Ritchey.
Admission is $12 for one day or $20 for two days. Show Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.
The Expo Center will also host the Tons of Fun Great Philadelphia Pumpkin Festival on now through October 26.
Hours are Friday, 6-10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 2-10 p.m.
The event includes rides, games and food. As an added attraction, there will be a free pumpkin with each admission.
Admission is $5 per person.
Greenbank Mills & Philips Farm (500 Greenbank Road, Wilmington, www.greenbankmill.com) will host “Folklore Friday: 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic” on October 24.
The site’s most popular fall event of the year returns with new presenters and stories as well as returning fan-favorite tales
Greenbank Mills & Philips Farm is a living history museum with tours and programs focusing on a variety of aspects of the Early Republic (1790-1830): the gristmill, the textile factory, and daily life at the 1794 Philips House and 19th century farm with heritage livestock.
Admission to this program is free but donations are encouraged.
Penns Woods Winery (124 Beaver Valley Rd, Chadds Ford, 610-459-0808, www.pennswoodswinery.com) will host its “Harvest Celebration” every weekend in October.
The event will feature live music, food trucks and artisan vendors. There will also be a free hay maze, apple cider donuts and the winery’s signature Pumpkin Spice Sangria.
Parking passes are required.
The outdoor space is family and dog friendly. Seating on the lawn is first-come, first-serve for groups of 10 or less.
Hope Lodge (553 South Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, 215-343-0965, http://www.ushistory.org/hope/) will be presenting a “Mansion Tour” on October 26.
Hope Lodge was built between 1743 and 1748 by Samuel Morris, a prosperous Quaker entrepreneur. Morris acted as a farmer, shipowner, miller, iron master, shop owner, and owner of the mill now known as Mather Mill. Hope Lodge is an excellent example of early Georgian architecture, and it is possible that Edmund Woolley, architect of Independence Hall, offered advice in building. Samuel Morris owned the estate until his death in 1770.
Tour admission is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors (age 65+) and for youth ages 6-17, and free for children under 5.
The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (Mount Hope Estate and Winery grounds, Route 72, Cornwall, www.parenfaire.com) is in full swing.
This year’s 45th annual staging of the event, which bills itself as “the most wondrous event in all the Knowne World”, is running now through October 26.
The festive annual event features authentic Elizabethan food and drink, traditional crafts from the guildsmen of yore and old-time games of skill — and a cast of hundreds of colorfully costumed re-enactors.
Every summer, the Faire, which takes place at Mount Hope Estate and Winery’s authentic 35-acre recreation of a 16th-century village in Olde England, features a new story from a different year of England’s past. This year’s Faire will take you back in time to the year 1590.
More than 70 shows are scheduled throughout each day on the Faire’s numerous stages.
Without a doubt, the most popular attraction is the Jousting Arena. Visitors to the Faire flock to Bosworth Field whenever it’s time for the Ultimate Joust. Peasants lead cheers for their favorite knights while musicians pound out a heart-thumping beat. The Master of the List announces the combatants and soon an encounter of royal proportions ensues.
The Faire offers a wide variety of activities for visitors, including listening to bagpipe music, checking out handsome Lords in their colorful silks, watching a jester’s acrobatics, learning how to juggle, being the recipient of a gypsy woman’s flirtations and watching the march of Beefeater Guards.
Guildsmen’s Way is the area that features a large variety of merchants and artisans, including jewelers, candle makers, potters, herbalists, leather smiths, clothiers, and pewter makers — all offering for sale and demonstrating their ancient wares.
And there are more than 20 Royal Kitchens located around the Faire with menus featuring a wide variety of food and beverages.
Single-day tickets are available at the gate for $38.95. For children (age 5-11) single-day tickets are available at the gate and online for $20.95.
On weekends now through October 25, the Kalmar Nyckel will be offering public sails from the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard (Copeland Maritime Center, 1124 E. 7th St. Wilmington, Delaware, http://kalmarnyckel.org).
For two decades, the Kalmar Nyckel, which has its home base in Wilmington, has been hosting riders all over the world – especially in Delaware.
A ride on the Kalmar Nyckel is totally different from most tourist water rides.
The ship is a beautiful recreation of the original Kalmar Nyckel, which was built in Holland in the 1620s. Her main mast is taller than a 10-story building and she carries 7,600 square feet of sail area and six miles of rigging.
The original Kalmar Nyckel was a Swedish-owned, three-masted armed pinnace that sailed from Goteborg, Sweden in November of 1637 and brought the first permanent European settlers to the Delaware Valley.
Carrying 24 settlers from four countries (Sweden, Finland, Holland, and Germany), she landed on the banks of the Christina River.
The site, which became known as “The Rocks”, can be visited at Fort Christina Park off Wilmington’s East Seventh Street.
The Kalmar Nyckel made four documented round-trip crossings of the Atlantic, more than any other “settlers’ ship” of the era. The original ship was lost in the late 1600s.
In 1986 a group of citizens established the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation to design, build and launch a replica of the Kalmar Nyckel at a shipyard adjacent to the original landing site.
The new Kalmar Nyckel was constructed there and was launched on September 28, 1997. She was commissioned on May 9, 1998, and now serves as Delaware’s sea-going Ambassador of Good Will. She is a fully functional sail training vessel and has represented Delaware all over the country.
Tickets are $45 for adults and $25 for youth (ages 17 and under).
This is a great time of year to take a ride on a tourist railroad with the experience heightened by a panorama of fall foliage.
The West Chester Railroad (Market Street Station, West Chester, 610-430-2233, www.wcrailroad.com) is running its special “Fall Foliage Express” trains on October 26 and November 2 and 9. Trains depart at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.
The round-trip train ride travels to the village of Glen Mills and back and lasts for 90 minutes. During the brief layover in Glen Mills, riders can explore the historic Pennsylvania Railroad station and have a snack in the railroad’s picnic grove along Chester Creek.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for children (ages 2-12) and free for kids under two.
The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad (Reading Outer Station, Reading, www.rbmnrr-passenger.com) is running its 2025 Fall Foliage Trains on weekends throughout October.
Passengers can enjoy a train ride to experience the fantastic fall colors that Pennsylvania has to offer.
They will travel over the rails to Historic Jim Thorpe after boarding the train at Reading Outer Station or Port Clinton Station.
Passengers will have time to explore historic Downtown Jim Thorpe during the layover.
Tickets for the all-day excursion start at $99.
The New Hope Railroad (32 Bridge Street, New Hope, www.newhoperailroad.com) is running its “Grapevine Express,” which features “Wine & Cheese Tasting” on October 25 and 26 at 4 p.m. each night.
Riders are invited to take part in a romantic “Wine and Cheese Excursion” and enjoy fine gourmet cheese, artisan crackers, meats, fruit, and our featured local wines. Additional Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic beverages are also available onboard.
Wine and cheese will be served to passengers as they travel along the same railroad line passengers did when it was built in 1891 connecting New Hope with Philadelphia. The journey travels through the beautiful hills and valleys of Bucks County, along once vital waterways and streams and across numerous trestle bridges.
The excursions will take place aboard one of the railroad’s lavishly appointed first-class parlor cars.
Tickets are $99 (ages 21 and older only).
The Strasburg Railroad (Route 741, Strasburg, www.strasburgrailroad.com) is running its “Wine & Cheese Train” on October 25 and 26 at 5 p.m.
Passengers can enjoy the luxurious, climate-controlled first-class accommodations and a tasting of select wine, cheese, and crackers as they travel in style down the tracks from Strasburg to Paradise and back. The total trip time is 45 minutes.
“Wine & Cheese Train” boarding is 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. Riders must be 21 or older and have their photo ID ready when they board.
Featured wines are carefully selected from Waltz Vineyards, and cheeses are paired accordingly. Beer and select non-alcoholic beverages are also available for purchase upon request. Riders can purchase a souvenir wine glass on board the train if desired. Glasses are $7 each.
In accordance with Pennsylvania law, alcohol is only served during the train ride. The rail line is not permitted to serve alcoholic beverages while the train is berthed in the station.
This popular train is available on select Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the season. Tickets are $79.
On October 25, the Colebrookdale Railroad (South Washington Street, Boyertown, www.colebrookdalerailroad.com) is running its “Autumn Cider and Donuts Express” at 10 a.m.
Departing from Boyertown, the train travels through vibrant fall foliage. Everyone gets a donut and cider while enjoying the bliss of the Secret Valley.
This is a one-hour excursion with ticket prices starting at $47.
There will also be a 90-minute excursion – “Fall Foliage Tour” – on Sunday on October 18 at noon and 3 p.m. and October 19 at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Ticket prices start at $37.
The Northern Central Railway (2 West Main Street, New Freedom, www.northerncentralrailway.com) is running “Fall Foliage Trains” on October 24 and 26.
Riders can enjoy the beauty of fall in Southern York County as the train follows the original Northern Central Railroad, a mainline in operation since 1838, through the scenic Heritage Rail Trail County Park.
Motive power will be the William H Simpson No. 17 replica steam locomotive or the 6076 PRR GP9 historic diesel locomotive. The conductor and brakeman will tell riders about the history and growth of the towns and villages they pass along the way.
Ticket prices start at $69.99.
Other excursions this weekend are “Ghost Tracks & Campfire Frights” on October 25 at 6 p.m. and “Halloween Express” on October 25 at noon and 6 p.m.
Treetop Quest Philly (51 Chamounix Drive, Philadelphia, www.treetopquest.com) is an aerial adventure park that will challenge you physically and mentally as you maneuver from tree to tree through obstacles and zip-lines. Once you’re equipped, they will teach you how to operate your equipment and you’ll be able to swing through each course as many times as you want for 2.5 hours.
Each participant is outfitted with a harness and gloves. Each course has a continuous belay system — a lifeline that is impossible to detach without a staff member. The activity is self-guided, and the staff is ready to assist when needed.
Gloves are required for our activity. During this time, we encourage participants to bring their own gloves to use while up in the trees, gardening gloves are perfect for this activity.
Ticket prices start at $38.
“TreeTrails Adventures Trevose” (301 West Bristol Pike, Trevose, treetrails.com/trevose-pa) is an adventure park full of fun challenges for outdoor adventurers of all ages.
Participants can experience the rush of TreeTrails Adventures as they swing through the trees of the new adventure park. They will be able to discover the excitement of climbing and zip lining above the forest floor with family, friends, co-workers, or teammates.
The park, which is based at Phoenix Sport Club in Bucks County, offers two ways to experience climbing – TreeTrails Adventure Park and KidTrails Park. Young explorers can enjoy miniaturized courses in the adjacent KidTrails Park.
General Park Admission prices are: Main Park Adult Tickets (Ages 12+), $59; Main Park Youth Tickets (Ages 7–11), $51; KidTrails Tickets (Ages 4–7), $12.
