Is going to the circus a working class activity?

[Gooseinthewood]

I was born and raised quite working class, husband middle class.
I saw tickets advertised for a circus in a nearby town and arranged to take our children. He came along and appreciated the silliness but commented that he was surprised I took them as it's quite a low class activity. Bit tongue in cheek. He doesn't really care, but typically we are more theatre / rugby types.

I have to say he's probably right but I didn't really realise this is a thing.

Queen Victoria liked the circus. She had Sanger's perform specially for her.

Well giffords is now £35 a ticket...!!

Same. Just because it’s something to fill the holidays with really.

Circus is for everyone, what a stupid remark! Circus performers train for years and are highly skilled, like other performers or athletes, so why on earth should it be any different from going to the theatre? Generally I find the people who make remarks like this are the ones who are self-conscious and not comfortable with themselves, so put on a fake "poshness" a la Hyacinth Bucket!

‘We are more a theatre/ rugby family’ means it doesn’t matter op, that short sentence is you reminding everyone here you’re middle class just because you feel you have to. I grew up mc now wc and I’d never think anything was a certain class- I just don’t t get why people care

As a couple of others have said, you need to go to Giffords circus. It’s a better class of circus than Zippos, or whatever others are around.

You have obviously not been to Giffords circus! Pretty mc and posh! Great fun though.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

Lol, no have you seen the prices?!

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

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.

Oh no you don't!

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

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.

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