For more than 175 years, the Ashton family has lived life under the Big Top. Now sixth-generation performer Chantel Ashton-Rodriquez is bringing the family tradition back to Logan — the place she and her family call home when the circus stops rolling.
THE circus has always been about life on the road with new towns, new audiences and another patch of ground on which to raise the Big Top.
But when the trucks stop rolling and the costumes are packed away, sixth-generation circus performer Chantel Ashton-Rodriquez and family are based at Munruben.
It is also the home base of Ashton Entertainment, making the troupe’s return to Logan this month much more than another date on an Australian touring schedule.
For Chantel, circus life is quite literally in her blood as a member of Australia’s oldest circus family, she is part of a remarkable entertainment dynasty stretching back more than 175 years to the gold rush era.
Today she is managing director of Ashton Entertainment, carrying a family tradition that has passed through six generations and entertained everyone from early Australian settlers to royalty and modern audiences.
Her own introduction to show business came before she was old enough to understand what a circus was.
“In our family, from a really early age we were taken into the finale or the parade,” she said. “We’d be carried in by Mum or Dad, sometimes on the back of a horse, dressed in our costumes. I even did bareback riding when I was about two.”
Growing up with her grandparents’ Ashton Circus meant home could be wherever the caravans happened to be parked that week, with her classroom a converted caravan fitted with desks and accompanied by a travelling teacher.
When Ashton Circus closed around 2000, members of the sprawling circus family went in different directions, for Chantel the next chapter became Ashton Entertainment.
The business has grown to encompass large-scale productions, smaller events and a full-time touring circus.
Behind the glamour of the costumes, lights and applause are long days and plenty of hard work but for Chantel, that is simply circus life.
“It’s the oldest circus family in Australia, and we’re proud to keep it going. There are tough days and long days, but live performance is important,” she said.
The latest production continues that tradition with aerial acts, comedy and ground-based performances, alongside spectacular globe riders from Brazil
Amid all the international talent and spectacle, there remains something wonderfully old-fashioned about what the Ashton family does.
“In a world where so much entertainment is behind a screen, there’s nothing like a live show that can be enjoyed by a two-year-old or a ninety-two-year-old.”
Ashtons – The Great Australian Circus opens at the Jimboomba Hills College Grounds on Friday, October 16, with performances running through to Sunday, October 18.
