Giffords Circus is spelled out in lights across the darkening sky above the giant circus tent as we walk across Marlborough Common to enter a world of the unexpected.

It looks otherworldly, a beckoning from the world of faery perhaps. A sign taking you to an enchanted carnival, a land of the impossible, of magic, music and revelry.

All about the tent are vintage vehicles, glossy with burgundy and gold. Music echoes in the twilight from a fairground organ, which spills golden light. A woman dressed in red velvet and gold braid, with a plumed hat, takes our tickets, smiles, and gestures us through a doorway into the big top.

Roll up, roll up. It’s circus time.

This is the marvellous Giffords Circus, a venture born of a dream in the year 2000, when Nell Gifford fulfilled her wish to create a village green circus. This year Giffords is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the wonder of circus, with a show called My Beautiful Circus – and finally, having heard so much about it, I am going to see the show. It was 1768 near Westminster Bridge, when equestrian rider Philip Astley drew out a 42-foot circle and filled it with jugglers, acrobats, clowns, strong men and bareback horse riders. This spectacle was the world’s very first circus.

Now two and a half centuries later, Giffords’ My Beautiful Circus features talent from around the world, with classical acts such as death-defying acrobatics, an adorable troupe of trained Shetland ponies, Tweedy the clown, third generation Italian circus acrobats the Curatola Brothers, Lisandra Austin and her aerial silk act, and the Portuguese Dias Family, eight of whom work together to create gymnastic and balancing acts.

Add to this list Nancy Trotter Landry, glamorous chanteuse and turkey charmer, juggler Dany Reyes, Alfredo and Pozo the Strongman, and Diana Vediashkina and her trained dachshunds, and you have a flavour of the acts lined up for your entertainment.

My Beautiful Circus is themed around the 1920s and 30s: think Great Gatsby and the Charleston, set in fairyland. The superb circus band is the fabric holding this rich and shining embroidery of talent together – the sequined pianist and the percussionist in top hat and tails smile all through the show. Even after a summer of touring everyone seems to be having the time of their lives taking part.

All too soon it is over. We have gasped with wonder, roared with laughter, held our breath, cheered with appreciation – but once again the mundane world beckons.

Reluctantly we depart into the night. It’s like a circus from a picture book, and looking back, you half expect the fabulous creation to have melted on the air.

I can’t wait to see it again.

Giffords Circus remains on Marlborough Common till Monday September 10, then moves to Stratton Meadows, Cirencester from September 13 to 25. For performance times and to book, visit giffordscircus.com.