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What sparked the idea for the London Clown Festival? Was there a “lightbulb” moment where you thought, “Yes, the world needs more clowns!”?

The world always needs more clowns! The festival was founded in 2016 by Henry Maynard and Dan Lees (both of whom are performing in this year’s festival) to promote contemporary clowning and physical performance and broaden the public perception of clown. The word ‘clown’ often conjures just the image of the traditional circus clown, but there’s a world of clowning styles and techniques beyond that. Of course, that style of performance is valid in its’ own right, but thinking of clown as limited to only that is like thinking of all theatre as only Shakespeare in Elizabethan ruffs, or All film as only Arnie actions. There’s so much amazing work out there and we want to make sure that people see it.

Contemporary Clowning gives audiences a chance to connect to their inner child that is often censored in everyday life. A chance to be joyful and to play. As well as lots of silliness the shows include plenty of physical storytelling, embracing both chaos and vulnerability to create unforgettable live moments of comedy and connection

More of that can only make the world better.

How has the festival evolved over the years?

London Clown Festival has grown from being in pop-up spaces, to being held at some of London’s most prestigious venues. Soho Theatre is very well established and respected in the comedy world and Jacksons Lane is second to none as a home for contemporary performance and Physical Theatre.

We’ve seen artists bring new shows to the festival that have gone on to be award nominated at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we hope that clown being recognised alongside shows considered ‘mainstream’ continues. And of course, we want to continue to grow so can bring more work to audiences.

Something we will always maintain, no matter how we grow, is the ethos that artists shouldn’t have to pay to play. We work really hard to make sure that we can cover the costs of running the festival from our share of the box office, without expecting artists to invest into covering those costs, the lions share of income goes to the artists. We have no regular funding so if you can’t support us and the artist by coming to see shows, we’d love for a donation, the price of a coffee, every little helps – https://ko-fi.com/londonclownfestival

This is your second year at Jacksons Lane, what makes this venue a great fit for the energy of LCF?

2025 is something of a full circle year for London Clown Festival, it would be the 10^th festival is it weren’t for the pesky covid break.

In 2018 the festival ran at what was then Mirth, Marvel and Maud (MMM) in Walthamstow (as well as at Farrs School of Dancing in Dalston and The Albany, Great Portland Street that year) And what was MMM, is the space that has just opened as Soho Theatre Walthamstow. I was there to see Natalie Palamides’ show open the venue and Natalie performed with us 2017.

It’s amazing to be able to help celebrate Jacksons Lane’s 50^th birthday. Being back for our second year here means we have been able to include more work that we’ve been wanting to in previous years but haven’t been unable to because of limitations on space and equipment.

Being at Jacksons Lane means we can incorporate shows that fit into the ‘physical performance’ category that we always want to support but who need more space for movement or the specialist rigging needed for aerial work. I’m really excited to bring more physical theatre that uses clowning to future festivals.

Some people still think clowns are just red noses and pratfalls. How does the festival help people rethink what clowning can be?

There are so many branches to clowning. Although the image that people often think of with the word ‘clown’ is a perfectly valid form of clowning, it’s not the style that is used in the contemporary clowning shows in London Clown Festival. Just look at the images for each of the shows in the festival, they don’t fit that particular look. Even that traditional circus style of clowning has distinct types within it that most people may not know about. It’s a really broad art form and we want more people to see more if it.

You can catch London Clown Festival in our theatre this July. Click here to find out more.