Lil Rice, who now runs Giffords, performing in The Hooley
Credit: Alastair Muir
“Mud and sequins,” says Nancy Trotter Landry, sitting amid the sawdust in the Giffords big top at Fennells Farm in the Cotswolds, where only 20 minutes ago she was performing an intricate dance with eight hoops in front of a rapturous (socially distanced) audience. “That’s what sums up the circus for me. And probably what I’ve missed the most. Well, the sequins at any rate.”
There is certainly a lot of mud today at Fennells, the permanent home of Giffords ever since a wide-eyed, 24-year-old Nell Gifford established it in 2000 with the dream of creating “a miniature village green circus, bursting at the seams”. It’s now open again to the public for the first time in 12 months. There are also plenty of sequins, glinting away on Nancy’s fairy costume, and on those of the ushers, trussed up in nude fishnet tights, wine red leotards and, er, Wellington boots, as they usher out excite