Waterford Winterval 2022: New show unveiled for this year's festival

The Gerbola Big Top has been pitched up in the centre of Waterford City for the first time and in addition as an inaugural event, a brand new Christmas Circus has been created and unveiled by the legendary eight-generation family circus company who are Ireland's best-rated traditional circus. 

The Christmas Circus show is one hour long and will feature the favourite circus acts including clowns, motorcyclists, acrobats and much more - all in a heated festive big top.

Circusgoers are certainly in for a laugh as the Gerbola family specialises in clowning and goes back eight generations including Mikey’s grandfather, Ralph Gerbola. He married Amy Foote of the Foote circus family based in England. The only child from this marriage was Michele E. Gerbola, Mikey’s father, who married Mona, née Fossett. Michael and Mona Gerbola had three children, Lisa, Caroline and Mikey all of whom work in Circus today.

Commenting on the Christmas shows at Winterval, Tara Gerbola says, “We have put together a really special Christmas Circus for audiences at Winterval. So far, the crowds have loved every moment of our festive performances. Our location right in the heart of the Winterval festival offers families a wonderful opportunity to sit back and relax for an hour to enjoy a very special Christmas circus spectacle in our heated big top.”

Gerbola Christmas Circus performances are on offer multiple times each weekend of the festival, tickets are €10 per person and available from www.winterval.ie. In addition, there are special Sensory Friendly Christmas Circus performances on offer on December 2 and December 19. 

The Christmas Circus is part of the Winterval Festival which is underway in Waterford City until December 23rd.  

The full Winterval Festival programme is available to view and book online at www.winterval.ie