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written by Holly Stoppit  Image credit: 3 red nosed close receiving instructions for a mission / Dan Green On the 5th and 6th of April 2025, 52 clowns took over Bristol University’s drama department to explore The Future Of Clowning In Turbulent Times. Clown Congress video filmed and edited by Dan Green Dan’s video and this blog offer a flavour of what took place at Clown Congress 2025. Read on for a bit of context, a roll call of who was there, photos and descriptions of what happened and a brand new poem from Skye Lilly!  Image credit: Holly explaining how Open Space works / Dan Green What Is A Clown Congress? Clown Congress is a space for clowns of all backgrounds to come together to meet, play, chat, eat, inspire and be inspired by each other. Clown Congress 2025 was the fifth rendition, the first two iterations happened online during the pandemic, the next three happened in person in Bristol, UK. Who Was There? This year’s hosts were Robyn Hambrook (clown activist), Holly Stoppit (clown therapist) and Jan Wozniak (clown academic). We were supported by 5 Clown Congress Comrades (Anna, Holly M, Skye, Beth and Jessi), a Wellbeing Support Clown (Alice Human), a Catering Manager Clown (Lucy Heard), a Clown Photographer (Holly Tiggs) and a Clown Photographer / Filmmaker (Dan Green). Our congregation included: clown doctors, clown activists, clown therapists, clown performers, clown teachers, clown puppeteers, clown musicians, clown wannabe’s, clown elders, boss clowns, clown parents, neurodivergent clowns, queer clowns, clown academics, clown dancers and clown deniers.  Image credit: Serious conversations at Bristol Uni Drama Department / Dan Green What Did We Do? We offered warm ups and getting to know you games in the mornings before introducing the Open Space. Open Space is a radical conferencing method where the attendees set the agenda. Anyone could propose a session exploring any theme relating to our overarching questions, then the delegates could choose where they wanted to be - they could attend single sessions, move between sessions or just hang out at the tea urn and chat with whoever was around. Our Three Questions For Exploration:
 Image credit: Clowns + cake / Holly Tiggs What Happened? There was serious discussion, frivolous play, singing, dancing, lying down, feasting, lamenting, imagining and connecting. There were clowns disrupting the status quo, creating a new manifesto, rebuilding the world, making films and spilling out onto the streets of Bristol. Here follows a run-down of the session titles, a beautiful poem written by Skye Lilly and some wonderful descriptions of the event from the attendees. The Sessions There were 6 Open Space slots over the 2 days, with a mighty 24 (official) sessions called by the attendees. To give you a flavour of what happened, here is a run-down of all the sessions. There will be reports of some of these sessions coming soon. Day 1 Sessions
Day 2 Sessions
Poet Skye Lilly created this poem over the two days, in response to their experience at Clown Congress. Dan Green filmed and edited this video of Skye performing their poem, with black and white pictures he took at the Clown Congress. Syke Lilly’s Poem Poet Skye Lilly created this poem over the two days, in response to their experience at Clown Congress. Dan Green filmed and edited this video of Skye performing their poem, with black and white pictures he took at the Clown Congress. There is utopia hereIn the dusk blue tinge of sunsetting A dream within a dream within a dream Sacred laughter echos Sacred moment savoured We click to quieten the thud of convention To hear hearts beat with certain gesticulation My grandmother took steps So I could wear silly hats So I should wear silly hats And to find others that would wear silly hats That makes silly sacred That takes silly and savours it There is a seat for you If there is a space unfulfilled it will be filled for you With you I sit on tree trunks What does everyone else sit on? If the chair is pulled from underneath you We will fall, I will fall gracefully When we fall, we fall gracefully Open heartedly Come play over tea with me Come lay randomly with me For Can you go for me Can you see for me When I am invisible can you be for me With me If you say this is the thing We say "the what?" "The what?" Again We rebuild the world again and again and again And when the falling rubble is too loud We build a bigger den And say "the what?" Again We build a fort of playful silence A thought for the not so fortunate It says non violent It says what are we going to do about it? It says what Are we going to do about it?  Image credit: a lot of clowns / Dan Green How did the attendees describe Clown Congress?
“Thought provoking, heart opening, healing, loving, compassionate, inspiring, fun and delightful.” “A gathering of professional idiots and academics to share wisdom about the ancient and sacred role of mockery in modern society.” “An emergent, horizontal/self-organising and polyvocal event giving insight into the multifaceted world of clowning through workshops, practice and applied work.” “Well, as a person that didn't know anything about clowning before I would say it’s a place to learn about and explore clowning with people from a range of different experience levels.” “Radical listening to and sharing our beautiful tragic and ridiculous vulnerabilities.” “A place where a vast array of clowns come together to find common ground, share knowledge, experiment and revitalise missions for the future.” Here are some of the reports and photos from the Congress: Get Things done Through Fun Clown & Neurodivergency Clown & Grief Sammy & Suzy's Play Session How the Clownmandments & Apocolypse came to be Clown Coaching Clown Congress in Pictures To see how the British media reported Clown Congress 2025 check out Holly Stoppit's blog here. Comments are closed.
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AuthorCreative research into the meeting point of clowning and activism Archives
May 2025
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ABOUT ROBYN
Robyn is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Over the past five years she has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and a deep desire to address the injustices in the world. This specialism has developed through her Masters Research ‘Small Circus Acts of Resistance’, on the streets and in protests with the Bristol Rebel Clowns and in research residencies with The Trickster Laboratory. Robyn’s Activist Clown research has led to collaborations with Jay Jordan (Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, France), Clown Me In (Beirut), LM Bogad (US), Hilary Ramsden (Greece) and international Tricksters; ‘The Yes Men’ (US). During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and developed a series of Zoom Clown Courses. Robyn’s research, started during her Masters, has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and activism, online, in the real world and with international collaborators. With this drive to explore political edges of her work she has also dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Nathaniel Justiniano, Eric Davis, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier. Keen to explore the intersection of clowning and politics, Robyn is driven to create collaborative, research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for her industry and strengthen partnerships for future work. Some of her most recent collaborations and teaching projects have included the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training), The Laboratory of the Un-beautiful (Feminist Grotesque Bouffon Training for Womxn Theatre Makers) and the Clown Congress (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era) |
Photo by HeardinLondon Photography
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