Equity pleads for circuses to reopen

Funfairs may open from 4 July though circuses may not, and Equity General Secretary Christine Payne has written to Caroline Dinenage, Minister of State for Digital and Culture, to demand that circus be allowed to re-open. DCMS guidance bars travelling circuses from opening, but Payne argues that circus is effectively an outdoor event: a roof with walls that can be opened, lifted up to provide ventilation and exits. She said: “There are no narrow corridors where people might pass too close. Seating is made to be set up in any configuration; the whole thing is designed to be rearranged at a moment's notice. It is what has been done down the years as circuses move from town to town.”

As performers live on site in their caravans, they are always in a ‘bubble’; and as the ticket office, toilets and catering facilities are all outside the Big Top in the open air, circus has more in common with a funfair than a building-based performance.