WELCOME TO THE BIG TOP: Le Grand Cirque to entertain young and old with high-flying style

While Simon Painter may not be leaving his England home anytime soon, he did say he has found a new home in Northwest Florida.

"This area is somewhere we have been looking at for a while," Le Grand Cirque's creative producer said of bringing his show to the Panhandle. "This is just a great location and we are pumped to be here."

Painter told the crowd of more than 80 that gathered at Grand Boulevard March 29 morning for the official announcement that he hopes to make this area the entertainment hub of Northwest Florida. Organizers offered a sneak peak into the performance with a show from the Chinese strongmen. To see photos from the event, click here.

Le Grand Cirque will partner with Grand Boulevard to bring its brand of high-flying, fast paced entertainment to the Emerald Coast starting Memorial Day weekend.

Le Grand Cirque, which recently sold out 50,000 seats at the Sydney Opera House, will treat audiences to performances by strong men, trapeze artists, contortionists and acrobatic performances.

"This is a fun and entertaining show," Painter said. "It will be very colorful and mesmerizing."

The show will offer audiences multiple opportunities to be amazed with eight to 12 performances a week. To see photos from a past performance, click here.

"This is tremendous for our community," said John Heiser, executive vice president for the Howard Group. "We don’t have a lot of attractions here, and especially nothing like this. To bring a world class venue like this to Northwest Florida … it will just help to put us on the map one more time."

Painter said he has traveled all over the world with Le Grand Cirque finding talent for his show.

"We have performers from China, Russia, Mongolia, England and Canada," he said. "There is some crazy stuff in the show that I guarantee you have never seen before. It is just insane stuff that these guys are doing."

Those who were in attendance Monday morning were treated to a sneak preview of the show as three Chinese strong men performed an amazing acrobatic routine.

Claps and whistles rang out from the crowd as the muscular men flipped, jumped and balanced on each others backs and arms with precision.

When asked after the performance if he had ever seen anything like that before, Heiser said it was awesome.

"This was the first time I had seen this," he said. "Almost everything they do is acrobatic and in the air."

Painter initially made a pitch before the Destin City Council in 2009. The group opted for the South Walton site instead.

Le Grand Cirque will perform evening shows Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., and matinee shows throughout the week at 2 p.m.

For ticket and show information visit www.cirquedestin.com, or call the Grand Boulevard visitor services kiosk at 850-654-5929.