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  • 23.04.2018

    The show must go on: 250 years of the modern circus

    • Description

      For the 250th anniversary of circus, Nell Gifford, ringmistress at Britain’s retro-chic Giffords Circus, is observing the age-old maxim that the show must go on.

      The elaborate jewelled outfits are being stitched by hand, her magnificent cloud-grey Andalusian stallion, Diamond, is wild-eyed and literally chomping at the bit, and Giffords’ brand new tent has been hauled up in a field near Stroud, where the 2018 tour begins on 4 May. A troupe of Cuban tumblers are tumbling and the caravans have been painted, sanded, and painted again in a deep burgundy so polished that you can see your face in them.

      Circuses are big news this year. There’s the 250th anniversary, The Greatest Showman movie starring Hugh Jackman as American impresario PT Barnum, and a recently released adaptation of Stephen King’s scariest novel, It, featuring the terrifying clown Pennywise. But Giffords, founded in 2000 as a traditional village circus, has become famous for offering a slice of handmade, old-fashioned fun.

      Strongman Pozo is shifting the ringside seats, circus usherette Lizzie Glynne-Jones is planning her wedding to Cuban acrobat Alfredo Fuente Avila, and Gervase Webb, a former Fleet Street hack, is up a ladder repairing a leaky roof.

      The Russian artist with her dachshunds is yet to arrive, and the Portuguese gymnasts and Italian acrobats are on their way, but nobody has yet got around to training the performing turkeys. Amid this chaos, Ollie Halas, the Giffords restaurant chef, has been persuaded – for the photographs – to don a terrifyingly lifelike bear outfit...

       

      Read more HERE