Mayhem Youth Circus Festival will take place from 18 – 26 May 2024. Until now, Mayhem has predominantly been attended by young people and families that already engage with Galway Community Circus, and included activities such as in-class performances by youth circus members, performances by the Youth Ensemble, and a public open workshop day called Circus In The Park.

With support from Creative Ireland the annual Mayhem Festival will be developed to include workshops and performances by a professional circus artist in the programme for the first time. Our ambition to include professional artists in the programme comes from the need to:

• Provide greater opportunities for children, young people and communities from diverse backgrounds to experience high-quality circus performances
• Inspire more young people to engage with the artform by seeing work and participating in masterclasses by professional artists
• Widen the reach of the Mayhem Festival to include young people and communities that we are not currently reaching through our programmes

As a first step towards this goal, we will bring world-renowned circus artist and clown Fraser Hooper to this year's Mayhem Festival to deliver free masterclasses and performances. Fraser has been chosen as our youth members have specifically requested workshops in clowning (currently none of our circus tutors are able to offer this), and his performances are of exceptionally high-quality while being accessible  to people from all backgrounds.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.