The Western Australian Circus Festival takes place every year in January in beautiful Karridale, in the famous Margaret River region of south-west Western Australia. Festival founder Matt Yates (aka Fatso) first jumped into circus as a juggler around about 1989. Developing his skills as an acrobat and street performer, he went on to work as a trainer for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, alongside exemplary Russian and Chinese trainers. He set up Lunar Circus 20 years ago in 1998 in Margaret River in Western Australia and trained his duo hand-to-hand act. As an older performer, he says he now prefers to focus on hand- and head-balancing, and finds these skills good for training.

Nadia Jade spoke to Yates, the festival director, circus trainer and visionary, and Louise Moss, executive producer and festival coordinator. Photo courtesy of Carnival Cinema Yates explained why he started the festival: “I’ve always wanted to run a festival, and just needed the land to do it. I was looking to buy my first house and this property came up. It was pretty rough, but it had a heap of sheds on it, and I just saw the potential.” The site was brought in 2002, and the initial few years required some seriously hard graft. The property had been set up as a...