Circus world
From back cover of Berkley paperback January 1981:

A PLANET OF DREAMERS AND CLOWNS VERSUS THE BEST MILITARY ACT IN THE GALAXY!

When the circus ship City of Baraboo crashed on Momus, the troupers of O Hara's Greater Shows turned a rockpile world into a showcase of razzle-dazzle.  Generations of mimes and acrobats, barkers, and freaks, fortune-tellers and magicians built a new civilization based on showmanship.

Then the Vorilian Council of Warlords decided that the circus world was a prime spot for a garrison and brought in an armada to "liberate" Momus.
American Science fiction, Circus, Circus performers, Fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general
Barry B. Longyear
Barry B. Longyear is an American author who resides in New Sharon, Maine.