Step right up folks! Feast your eyes upon the feathered dancers, jugglers, jesters, thundering drums, and giant puppets of Austin Samba’s “O Circo Místico,” the Mystic Circus.

This year, we are celebrating circuses from around the world. Do not fret! No animals are being harmed in the making of our circus. Our show this year is more Cirque du Soleil than Barnum & Bailey. We are celebrating the acrobats, contortionists, clowns, musicians, and more associated with traveling circuses and freakshows.

Our theme, or enredo, this year, “O Circo Místico,” is based upon a Brazilian musical “O Grande Circo Místico” first performed in Brazil in 1983. The musical was one of the biggest hits of the 1980s. It toured for two years and was seen by more than 200,000. In 2002, “O Grande Circo Místico” was chosen by the Rio de Janeiro samba school Mocidade as its enredo.

Austin Samba will use Mocidade’s song, or samba de enredo, as its samba for the 2015 Carnaval season, which will open at Carnaval Brasileiro on Feb 28, 2015, and close at Zilker Hillside Theatre on March 28, 2015.