CIRCUS ANNIVERSARIES. My scan of the ‘World’s Fair’ (commencing 1904) has now reached 1968. That year was the 200th anniversary of the entertainment devised by Philip Astley, later given the name ‘circus’ by his onetime apprentice and later rival Charles Hughes. The Circus Fans Association Secretary, David Barnes, and circus writer Don Stacey organised a special ‘Circus Exhibition – 200th Birthday of Circus’. This was ‘staged’ at Simpson’s, Piccadilly, London. Simpson’s, the gentlemen’s outfitter, had previously housed the ‘First International Exhibition of Circusiana’, in 1950. In 1968, many parallels could still be drawn with the acts seen at the original Astley’s. Riders, athletes and clowns still survive in 2006 but the ‘hippodramas’ have virtually disappeared in Britain, although in 1968 Smart’s had produced a new spectacle ‘Viva Espagna’ and had revived ‘Legend of the Old Prairie’, which were equestrian spectaculars indeed. Although Astley’s opened in the spring of 1768, the ‘200th Anniversary of Circus Exhibition’ opened at Simpson’s, on 18th November 1968. The next significant circus anniversary date looks like 2018! I wonder if we shall still be celebrating circus as a living art form! We have only twelve years to complete preparations for the spring of 2018. John Turner.