High-Wire Royal! Princess Stephanie Set to Celebrate Circus Anniversary with Glamorous Gala

Princess Stephanie is preparing to celebrate a very special milestone: the 40th anniversary of the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival.

The world’s most prestigious circus event, run by Monaco’s most famous circus-loving royal, dispensed with its traditional awards competition this year in place of a special tribute edition – with a grand gala planned for Tuesday night.

The annual circus festival brings together the best acts from five continents in nightly one-ring circuses, held under a tent in the shadow of Monaco’s luxury sky-rise apartment towers. Stephanie, 50, serves as unofficial ringmaster.

“She knows circus and for us, she is a great, great princess,” Emilien Bouglione, the owner of France’s best-known circus, tells PEOPLE. “I knew her father [Prince Rainier III] for 60 years and he loved circus. Stephanie is like her father but with her, if it isn’t the absolute best, it isn’t [at the festival].”

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The story goes that to celebrate the 25th year of his reign in 1974, Prince Rainier – who owned a private zoo – thought to offer his subjects a circus. Later, his wife Princess Grace invited her friend, Hollywood legend Cary Grant (a former circus performer himself!) to judge acts. The mix of a wintertime circus in the world’s most glamorous destination became an annual occasion.

Long before Rainier’s death in 2005, his younger daughter Stephanie was involved with the festival organization – earning praise and respect along the way.

“There are people who are circus performers, who were born into it – or have the passion,” says American stunt clown Bello Nock. “And then there are circus fans, who love the show, but can’t walk the wire.” But Stephanie, says two-time festival winner Nock, is both.

“It is rare though to find someone who can do it all,” he tells PEOPLE. “Who loves circus, promotes it, someone who can do the full compass. That’s what she is.

“Her Highness is respected,” he adds. “What you don’t see unless you’re there: She sits and watches every moment of rehearsal. That’s 14 hours – and then two hours later, she’s there applauding a five-hour long show! Night after night.”

Among circus devotees, Stephanie is praised for having continued to develop and expand the festival, creating a summer circus dinner event and doubling the January schedule by producing a second festival celebrating next-generation acts under the patronage of her daughter Pauline Ducruet, 21.

“Stephanie is different than her father,” says Dr. Alain Frere, whose circus contacts Prince Rainier drew on to create the original circus in 1974. “She’s much closer to the performers than the Prince was, and it’s she who decides the show. The final choice is hers.”

Arts in Monaco, says Frere, “are a family affair. Caroline handles music and the dance; Stephanie, circus.

“She knows the circus so well and has helped evolve the festival. The final choice of the acts is hers. And she has transmitted her love of circus onto the next generation.”