Greentop Circus at Chatsworth House and Castle Howard

Greentop Circus continues its successful expansion into new markets this year by supplying entertainment for two major events at stately homes in our region. On the 1st of November Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, put on a Bonfire and Fire works party in its private lawns. Greentop has been working closely with their event staff for the last 6 months to put together an entertainment package that would provide the extra wow factor they need to make the event one to remember for all the right reasons.

The event was to be at night so the entertainment had to be visable in the dark, it also had to be high quality, professional and there needed to be enough performers to 'fill' the space. In the end the Greentop events team used its extensive knowledge of working at clubs and festivals to produce an event package that both met the brief and delivered a night of enchanting circus for all that attended.

There were 11 artists employed, 1 professional ringmaster / MC, 5 stiltwalkers in illuminated costumes that ranged from space men to dragon flies and 5 fire artists from international fire troupe Flame Oz (hot from Galstonbury!).

The stilt walkers met the 3500 guests as they arrived and made them feel special, talking, mingling and generally having fun with the famillies that attended. The costumes worn by the stiltwalkers used 'flexible neon' EL light wire and LED's and represented some of the most cutting edge performance technology available today, all created by the artists themselves. In the dark they looked like moving works of art.

The fire show lasted half an hour and was truely breathtaking. Flame Oz are rightly regarded as one of the best fire acts in the world and Greentop was proud to use them for this job. They employed a mixture of choreographed dance, martial arts, acrobatics and various fire props (sticks, clubs, staff, ropes, hoolahoop) and finished off with an amazing pyrotechnic dance set.

The end of the fire act signalled the start of the fire works, set off over the ornamental lake and set to rousing classical music. There was also a great steel band who banged out everything from madonna to salsa so that the stilt walkers kept dancing right up to the end.

Chatsworth were so pleased with Greentop's plans, they recommended them to Castle Howard even before they had performed for them and out of this Greentop provided 4 stilt walkers and a fire act for the following night at the site of the stately home near York. This was a smaller event for Greentop, though larger in terms of the numbers of guests, which was over 5000. The men stilt walkers wore new space suits that looked like life-sized Transformer Robots and the women wore dragon fly costumes whose wings glowed in the dark. They also performed two fire acts for the crowds even though it was a little damp and they were received with great applause. 

Both events were a success and it is hoped these will lead to new opportunities. If you want to see images from theChatsworth event, follow this link the the gallery.