At the time of writing, Tumble Circus are our Promoter Of The Week – a title we’ve proudly bestowed on some of the best independent event organisers around. We’ve featured music promoters, venues, comedy clubs, pop-up cinemas, a jazz festival, a book festival, and the UK’s best Stone Roses tribute band… but never a circus before!
Tumble Circus have been running excellent events for nearly 30 years, providing high-quality, high-octane entertainment all across the world. We spoke to co-founder Ken Fanning recently about the unique challenges faced bringing such complex events to life, and how they choose to tackle the historic art-form…
Thanks for chatting to us. Could you tell us a little about the origins of the Tumble Circus and the concept behind the Winter Circus annual event?
Tumble Circus is 30 years old on the 1st of April 2025 at about 1 o’clock.
We started off as street circus performers and now we tour nationally and internationally with our Big Top. We are an alternative type of circus and have been described as the Irish Cirque de Soleil – if Cirque de Soleil was hit by a bus.
Winter Circus started eight years ago. We decided we would give it three years of our energy and if it was a success we would keep doing it, and here we are eight years later running our own successful annual event in the Belfast Christmas calendar. The aim was to run a season of circus shows in the big top in Belfast that would be financially sustainable, create work for local circus artists and provide an alternative Christmas event for families.
Circus as a medium has been around for such a long time. How has the art form evolved over the years and where do you see it heading in the future?
Circus has proven to be a resilient art form. In the early 20th century cinema and then TV came and nearly killed the art form, but it reinvented itself and continues to draw big audiences.
Being based in Belfast, what do you think makes Irish circus unique or different to other forms of circus?
Circus in Ireland has been around since circus began, but we are part of a new emerging contemporary circus community. This is made up of artists that have not been born into or toured with the traditional circus family. As the contemporary scene is still emerging it’s hard to see what is unique to Ireland.
People like our show because they are highly skilled but also funny, we appeal to all ages and try to stick some social commentary into to it. I know in Belfast they love some dark humour and when we try to blow up the old people in the front row it always gets a great laugh, but other places are slower to react with laughter when you are trying to blow up their granddad.
A lot of our event organisers are in music/comedy gigs – what are some of the unique challenges in running circus events?
Venues are a challenge for circus events – we need height, space and rigging points. This often means that only bigger venues – 400-seater theatres and up – can accommodate our needs. This puts a lot of pressure on the event to sell tickets to pay for the venue. Often circus shows will have lots of performer, so again the cost of running a circus can be high. However, a good selling point for circus show is unlike comedy and music the name of the act is not so important, for a lot of people they just want to take their kids to the circus. They are not that bothered what the show is called or who is in it.
The perception of circus is still one of traditional circus, if you have made a circus show that does not conform to this style it can often be hard to get an audience interested.
You’ve taken the circus to some of the biggest festivals in the world – Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe just to name a few. How difficult is it to tour the circus abroad?
It would seem like the most impossible thing, and yet we have managed to do it. What is important is that you have a good crew of artist who are up for the adventure, because lots of things are going to go wrong, get broken, lost or turn up hungover for opening night. The whole circus community is great, the old cliche of one big circus family is true, people are so happy to help, to give you equipment, caravans, big tops or food and a bed. It’s a great community, and a community that all understand the pressure and needs of a touring circus show.
What can audiences expect from the 2024 edition of the Winter Circus compared to previous years?
We never really know what we are going to do in the show until about two weeks before we open, some years we didn’t know until about two minutes before we opened. This year we have invested in some projectors. As well as being a circus maker I’m also a film maker, for years we’ve been wanting to do something with projection and live circus shows. We play in the round so we will be projecting over the head of the audiences; in my head it will be a very immersive experience. Often what’s in my head and what happens are very different and the results can be surprisingly better that I could have imagined, I’m hoping that is what is going to happen.
You’ve been with us since 2016, what were you looking for in a ticketing partner and what has kept you at WeGotTickets?
You’re not Ticketmaster! But more than that, just being an independent business your customer service is excellent, and the website is easy and reliable to use.
And finally, do you have any tips for anyone starting out with their own circus events?
Get a big top, having your own venue is gold. No one can tell you that you can’t throw feathers about or let off fireworks on stage and it is the dream of circus that every child imagines; acrobats, clowns and aerialists all performing in a brightly coloured Big Top.
Find out more about Tumble Circus Winter Circus in Belfast on their website. Tickets are available here: https://wegottickets.com/JossersBigTop
