Introduction
Circus Galacta is a famous attraction that make their way all around the Dominion. They feature acrobats, and other stage performers and shows, rides, animal exhibits and so on.
Location
Circus Galacta comes with their own environmental buildings.
The series of huge red-and-white striped inflatable domes have been set up on a bare patch of ground several kilometres from the spaceport. Buses run from the Downport exit along a purpose-built road to the site of the Circus.
From the bus windows, a laser display, easily visible in the constant darkness at this latitude, is writing on the clouds overhead Welcome to Circus Galacta!
Ticket Prices
Entry to the Circus and the Basic Show is free for residents of Zarg’s World and ʄ60 for non-residents. A variety of ticket upgrades are available.
Kwint wants everyone to get the ʄ250 VIP upgrade package.
The VIP upgrade gives access to the VIP lounge, all food and most drinks included, premium seats for the Big Show, all rides and sideshow games included (*excludes souvenir purchases) and a Circus Galacta-themed commemorative storage widget.
Merchandise
There are opportunities to purchase merchandise in many places, so effectively yes, though it turns out the VIP area has merchandise not available in other places.
Branding
Circus Galacta branding is a distinctive red-and-white stripe pattern (usually vertical).
Though many Circus Galacta employees are actually bureaucrats with the Cultural Bureau, they do not wear the traditional blue uniforms but always appear in variants of Circus Galacta livery.
Locations
Sideshow Dome
Shooting Gallery
There are pistols and rifles.
The weapons seem to fire a low-powered laser at the lizard-shaped targets that pop in and out from behind cover on a simplified mini shooting range.
A sign says that blue-coloured weapons simulate slug throwers and yellow-coloured weapons simulate beam guns.
The Zero-G Maze
A separate structure that takes up a large portion of the upper area of the Sideshow Dome, Many Grav Plates nullify the gravity to Zero-G, or provide some gravity from odd angles. There are tunnels, nets, ropes and trampolines in this padded area. Some areas have air blowing through them. A section marked as ‘the Upwell’ is a long, wide pipe where you go in at the bottom and fall up until you are snatched sideways at the top, fall sideways and then are tumbled around by gusts of air until being deposited gently into a low gravity area of large rubber balls.
This is the first attraction that Prrri actually tries out, having been mostly sticking close to Gregar, Karmen or Lia among the crowds of humans. It seems Kwint was hoping to get some of his own back on Kort by challenging him to a race, but the Felline laps them both – a blur of grey fur bouncing and swinging off multiple surfaces.
VIP Lounge
The VIP Area adjoins both the Main Dome and the Sideshow Dome. The group is tagged through after having their ID’s checked with their ticket purchases.
In here, there’s a giant buffet along one wall containing a wide variety of foods, a bar where drinks, alcoholic and non- are served, a series of low couches in one area and dining tables in another. In one corner, there are public terminals, and in another a gift shop.
Overhead the picture-ceiling changes every moment or so, a label indicating it is sky views of different planets across the Dominion. The wall opposite the buffet displays a historic montage of Circus Galacta big shows through history.
Circus Galacta staff, identifiable in their red-and-white-striped uniforms, can provide information, assistance or amusement – some juggle, perform sleight-of-hand tricks, do quick sketch-pad caricatures on request or other minor entertainments.
Big Show Dome
The big show dome is where The Big Show is held.
The Big Show
To detail Circus Galacta’s Big Show would be to do it an injustice.
Imagine the best immersive high-tech stage show with the best performers you’ve seen and turn it up to 11.
This is the Dominion at its high-tech best, using that ability to highlight the skills of some of the Galaxy’s very best performers – acrobats, animal acts, dance, illusion, fireworks, music and song, sound and light and vibration and gravity all in service of making the audience go ‘Oh!’
It’s a breathtaking Job-length extravaganza of the best talent and spectacle on offer anywhere in the Dominion.
The show climaxes with noise and light thunderous applause from the audience.
Then the house lights come up and it’s back to reality; it takes a little while before most people are ready to move.