The Circus Hub hits the stage at this week's Newtown Festival

The Circus Hub keeps performing at Newtown's Festival thanks to NZCT's grant of $4,750.

Newtown Festival Administrator Rhona Carson says , "The Circus Hub Stage has become a key component of the Newtown Festival - our annual, day long, free event here in the streets of Newtown, Wellington. It makes a crucial contribution to our goal to provide free entertainment and fun activities for all the family. "

General Manager Rosalie Ducharme adds, " The Newtown Festival is always a highlight for us as it allows us to share what we do with the people of our neighborhood. Our circus appeals to all ages and our professionals run free workshops between performances, which are also very popular with tamariki and school-aged children. It means so much for us to have our community not only to witness the passion of our students and local circus performers, but also to experience it for themselves."

We also appreciate the opportunity this provides for our young talent to perform in front of a local and supportive crowd. The circus never fails to bring a sense of wonder back into our lives by getting us to reconsider what we can achieve when we nail a new juggling or acrobatic trick we never thought possible.

The Circus Hub was created in 2005 and has been located in Newtown for over ten years. We are now New Zealand's largest circus school and welcome around 150-200 students each week in our community classes, in addition to running many other projects and community events.

Our work is focused on growing a strong circus culture, profession, and community that is recognised and inclusive. Our passion for our art drives us to create opportunities for the community so that a growing number of people of all ages and abilities can benefit from circus.

We do this by focusing on three main areas:

- recreational circus classes for all, as an exciting alternative to mainstream sports to stay physically active.

- partnering with schools and organisations to deliver social circus programmes designed to help youth at-risk and people with disabilities.

- supporting Wellington-based emerging and established professionals to increase the visibility of circus in the region and grow our industry.

Photo credits - Carolyn Blackwell and Angharad George.