Circus Oz's first performance, 25 years ago, was in a homemade 600-seat tent on the southern bank of the Yarra River. The tent cost $7500 and the poles were made from scrap steel.

The idea for a circus tent-themed room came from a showroom on St. Charles Avenue that Wiebelt-Powell and her parents visited in the '80s. It had a fabric-tented ceiling.