The inaugural Vermont Circus Festival is happening in Brattleboro this week. It’s eight days of circus performances, workshops and community events hosted by the New England Center for Circus Arts.

By Foster Hunt, for the Community News Service

BRATTLEBORO — The inaugural Vermont Circus Festival is happening in Brattleboro this week. It’s eight days of circus performances, workshops and community events hosted by the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA). 

Serenity Smith Forchion is one of the founders of NECCA and the producing director of the festival. She says performers have come from all over the world to join the festival’s workshops, like “Flying Trapeze: Make That Catch” and “Advanced Handstand Foundations and Tricks.”

But there’s still plenty for beginners. 

“We have a kids’ book reading at the library for little kids with a clown,” Smith Forchion said. “We have a Clown Crawl on Friday as part of Gallery Walk. We decided to not do registration for our community events so that there’s no barrier of entry. Anyone can show up. So we’re hoping that the community decides to enjoy free circus.”

Festival events are open to the circus-curious of all ages and experience levels, including SilverCircus classes for seniors.

“In our open gym class right now, I can see some people who’ve done this before — they’re clearly here just sort of having fun, refreshing their memory. And then we have some people who have never tried circus before,” Smith Forchion said.

Other festival events include a discussion of circus history in Vermont, an LGBTQ+ meetup, and evening performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And, Smith Forchion says, they’re giving away hundreds of free clown noses.

So get your biggest pair of shoes ready; the Vermont Circus Festival is on through Sunday, November 9.

The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.