Zip Zap Circus: Building Confidence Under the Big Top in Cape Town

Founded in 1992, Zip Zap Circus is a Cape Town-based social and professional circus that has spent more than three decades offering fee-free circus arts training to young people regardless of their ability to pay. Its roughly ten programmes range from the 2nd Chance schools outreach initiative through to the advanced Zappers track, building confidence, discipline and resilience through trapeze, acrobatics, juggling and clowning. In 2024 alone, Zip Zap's 2nd Chance programme ran 35 workshops reaching 1,629 participants from Western Cape Education Department schools across the Cape Town metro. Alumni who started as children swinging from backyard trapezes now work as professional performers and circus technicians internationally, and the company has completed more than 30 international tours, performing for presidents, princes and sporting stars.