Is going to the circus a working class activity?

Careful…if they hear that they may refuse you in lest you forget your ‘place’

I really don’t understand why some people think that certain activities should only be undertaken by people of a particular class.

The late queen loved a pantomime

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64077710

Glad you clarified that you worked very hard to earn your place. Yikes! I hope your children didn’t catch anything from the working class peasants there. Threads like this make me despair, why are we worrying about class in 2026?

What pray is a working class activity? Surely the stuff people enjoy doing is personal to that individual?
I'm not even sure ehat working class and middle class even mean any more?

We went to Giffords circus last year and I felt I didn't really belong. I cringe when I remember the looks I got when I carried in a pint of lager after the interval.

Meanwhile, I’m a lower class council estate brokie and I’m saving up to take my son to see Les misérables in London 😁

It’s not an activity that I’m surprised to hear people being snobby about.

Weird. I think its a normal fun thing to take kids to.

What? Send him to a Giffords Circus performance in a naice English market town. Or the performance in Chiswick. One of the investment banks blocks out (or used to) all of the tickets at one of the Saturday performances in Chiswick and does it as a client event. The couple of years we went, it was one of the highlights of the DC’s year.

You jumped the shark with the tracksuit bottoms, OP 😂.

Oh no you don't!

You might enjoy taking them to some good old-fashioned cock fighting down the East End OP.
I heard Princess Margaret used to love a bit of that.

Yes please do elaborate @Gooseinthewood how did you EARN your place in your social circles?!

Lol, no have you seen the prices?!

I went to the circus as a child in the US. The circus was a Barnum & Bailey's (as in PT Barnum, the greatest showman). It was a big, exciting event - a chance to see exotic animals and impressive acrobats. This was in the hey-day of Gunther Gebel-Williams, who was a big cat trainer, so there were leopards, lions, tigers, etc. I also remember a few elephants. Memorably, my younger sister remarked on the 'extortionist' (contortionist) and all the rellies thought this was really funny b/c the circus was not a cheap evening out.
In small towns and cities, when the circus came to town, everyone who could, went. It could be expensive: glossy programme, popcorn, light-up toy - tickets were the least of it. The circus came to town on a special train and that was exciting too. (If you're British, there's a Thomas book/episode about this in the UK)
My only qualm now would be about the treatment of the animals which makes me undeniably middle class.
As a child, we went to the ballet occasionally and to symphony concerts too.

Same.

First circus I saw live in person was at Butlin as adult - only one DC have seen live- which I suppose is considered working class hoilday though my parents only afforded once in my childhood.

Most pantomime and shows seen live by our kids were seen at Butlins with few more theater outing with us and school on top over the years - lots of musums castles and historcial buildings and art galleries, few science musums and few fairs and theme parks.

What do you mean 'I've worked very hard and earned my place at the children's school and our social circles? Are you carrying around shame at having grown up working class or something? If so, that's weird.

@Agoddessonamountaintop Tickets are £26 for just the circus. The dinner at Circus sauce is extra plus very few can go. Certainly not the 300 in the big top when it’s full. We are going next week so I know what price it is. Plus it’s a circus show. We went way back in around 2002 when it had just started. Nell Gifford has sadly died.

How can you not love a circus or a pantomime? I adore both. In fact I was at the Circus this very afternoon and it was really magical. Not enough wonder and escapism in the world in my opinion. Though I was heavily influenced by Enid Blyton as a child where MC moppets were always watching friendly elephants trotting down their suburban street when the circus came to town,

I was also at the RSC last week and there’s nothing I enjoy more than live opera sung in the vernacular. I missed the memo about there being lists of activities you were only allowed to enjoy based on your income. Feel like a fool cracking on doing things I enjoy lest I be expelled from my social circle. Not that I’m sure what one of those is or if I indeed have one.

All I know is if you spend all your time worrying about what other folk think you’d do nowt. I’m proper common by birth but as my granda used to say “I’ve raised my bairns to walk alongside Princes and Paupers and hold their head high”. I’ve never forgotten that and live accordingly.

Let me guess - Gifford’s. Last time I went tickets were £70 a pop and you have dinner in a vintage truck before the show.
Cotswolds-based so fuck off red trouser central.

I was just going to say that - it’s definitely more Soho Farmhouse than Butlins!

Well, all the posh children in the Enid Blyton books enjoyed it. Even the St Clares girls. Noel Streatfield, who was quite upper crust herself, toured with the Bertram Mills’ circus, to research her ‘The Circus is Coming’ book for children.

When dd did a couple of tours with a circus when she was 10/11yo the audiences were all sorts. I don't think there were better audiences in posher places.

Imagine not going to a circus because it’s for the working class…kids don’t care how much the parents of the child in the next seat make each year.

If you child would enjoy the activity and it is safe then you should do it regardless of who someone thinks it is for 🫣

I mean, I’m sat on a plane for my 20th trip to Walt Disney World…but I could happily go to the seaside and throw 2ps into the machines for 3 hours the week I get back. One is cheap and full of all sorts, the other is super expensive and full of middle class families, so what. If you enjoy it, do it.

What a ridiculous question. How can going to a circus have anything to do with whatever class people think they belong to