Telling Tales: Circus

Every summer in Tipton, three large festivals take place in three different areas of the town. Tipton Town Team recognised the importance of these events as they are organised and run by local community leaders and their respective community groups and they showcase local talent and raise pride in the town. The Town Team wanted to increase the number of people visiting all three of the summer events to provide an opportunity for the whole town to come together and the different community organisations to collaborate on a joint initiative, which we called Tipton Summer Season.

Multistory talked to the four groups: Tipton Town Team; Tipton Community Association; Great Bridge Community Forum; and the Tipton Muslim Centre and it was agreed that a joint advertising campaign would be the first step. All the events were advertised as part of the interlinked summer season, with posters and brochures being printed and displayed across the whole town so that the whole community would have details about each of the three events.

It was also important that the young people were involved in this joint venture and so the idea of a community circus came about, made up of young people from each community group. The Tipton Circus Stars as they came to be known, would perform at each of the events, therefore attracting friends and families to attend as well.

Many of the young people had never met before, and would probably not have had the opportunity to meet, until they came together in week four of the sixteen week long project. They had to work closely as a team in order to choreograph complicated juggling, stilt walking, diabolo and unicycle routines ready for their first performance at the Jubilee Park event and parade.

The young people gained new skills and new friends throughout the course of the project and the whole of Tipton were able to see not only the talent but also the commitment of the local young people in the coming together of the different areas of Tipton.

The community circus continues to run from the Coneygre Arts Centre.

Filmed and Edited by Keith Bloomfield.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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