Every year at Bradon Forest School we host a Summer Arts Festival. This year, as a mark of our first four successful years as a specialist school for the arts, we have decided to celebrate in style! To make sure that we could accommodate the 1000 performers we have hired a big top circus tent for the occasion… and so we have…. The Big Top Festival!

The festival will run from Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th July, although we couldn’t actually fit everything in so we have an ‘unofficial launch’ to the event on Wednesday 8th. The three ‘main’ days of the festival each have a theme.

Friday is the music night where the Big Top will open it’s stage for the black tie celebration. The evening will see the finals of three competitions that have been running at school for the past few months; battle of the bands, vocal and instrumental. We have special guest judges The Dacoits and the evening will culminate in a set from the signed band! Don’t forget your posh frocks though as this is the highlight of the musical calendar!

Saturday is our circus day… well, we couldn’t not have one, could we?! We have professional clown Circo Ridiculoso with ‘Lighter Than Air’: Enter the strange and bizarre universe of a wild balloon tamer where surreal and stupid things happen. Combining circus and comedy, performer and clown Danny Schlesinger creates an utterly joyous experience loaded with participation, surprises and laughs. This performance will be promoted as ‘one for children, young and old’ and each child ticket will include a balloon and party cake. The audience will then be invited to head in to the theatre for our ‘Celebration of Dance’.

As well as performances from Swindon Dance, there will also be the premiere of ‘In The Ring’, an exciting, vibrant piece of physical theatre and dance which has been devised and created by the Bradon Forest Dance Theatre Company and directed by Marie-Louise Flexen. The show captures the excitement and imagination of the circus and is not to be missed! We will also have a performance of Garba Dance, which is the result of an all day workshop with Sangita Kapadia and a selection of Bradon Forest students. We are very pleased to announce that the Saturday night finale is a very special performance by Circomedia, the world famous circus school, who have put together this show especially for the Big Top Festival!