Demain’s Volunteers is the latest initiative supported by the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain with the aim of bringing the circus community closer together. The first edition at the Zip Zap Circus School in Cape Town South Africa with volunteers the Wise Fools just ended. You can see just what they got up to in their month-long placement in their visual diary halfway down this page. But before we get to that, what exactly is this new project about and how did it all begin?

Origins January 2017, during the cold Parisian winter, the Club PRO dome at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain became a place of warmth and sharing. Representatives from different circus organisations – companies, schools and social circuses – came together to present and listen to talks about their work. After hearing the touching, passionate stories of those working in social circus around the world, the organisers of the Festival wanted to contribute in their own way to the development of exchanges and partnerships between artists and social circus structures. Listening to these talks, it became apparent that the worlds of social and professional circus exist in the same universe but in separate solar systems! Social circus schools are often in desperate need of skilled artists to volunteer as trainers and help guide their stu...