On the 28 & 29th March 2026, 75 clowns took over Bristol University’s drama department to explore The State of our beloved Art Form at Clown Congress 2026.

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 2026 was the sixth rendition; the first two iterations happened online during the pandemic, the next four 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 6 Clown Congress Comrades (Eve, Grainne, Carla, Laura, Nia and Dani), a Clown Intern (Amy May), a Wellbeing Support Clown (Alice Human), our very own Dame of Documentation (Bee Golding), a Catering Manager Clown (Lucy Heard), Clown Photographers (Dan Green and Kat Hayhoe) and guest research photographer (not a clown) Jon Kent.

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, clown enthusiasts and clown deniers.

They came from the far flung corners of the world, including; New Zealand, Turkey, Lebanon, Norway, Germany, as well as from all across the UK.

What Did We Do? 

In the mornings, we offered warm ups and getting to know you games, before introducing the Open Space. Open Space is a radical conferencing method where the attendees get to set the agenda. Anyone could propose a session exploring any theme relating to our overarching questions (listed below), 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 overarching questions:

What is the State of our Art? 

What's happening in clown world? What’s going well? What are we doing that we can savour and celebrate?

What is the Future of Performance?

Is traditional theatre dead? In the spirit of 'evolve or die,' how do we, as artists, sustain ourselves and our practice?

What is Clowning in Action?

How do we apply clowning to make a tangible difference, in our own lives and the lives of others, through activism, therapy, and social care?

How can Clowning Support Community and Survival?

How do we build clown communities and utopian spaces to see us through turbulent times? How do we gather outside the failing paradigms to sustain ourselves and our art?

The Sessions There were 6 Open Space slots over the 2 days, with a mighty 40 (official) sessions called by the attendees (there were numerous unofficial sessions popping off all over the place). To give you a flavour of what happened, here is a run-down of all the sessions:

Day 1 Sessions

• Box of Curiosities
• How to become a Clown
• Education: Crisis & Rigidity
• Simple Clown
• How does Clown serve Life?
• Bring my Unconscious Clown into my Consciousness
• Healing and Joy is my Jam
• Games and tips for kids living under the bombs and war
• Is there a spirituality of clowning?
• Sheila – the clown hairdresser offering hairstyle make overs
• How might we best put a red nose onto the next pigeon?
• Men’s Play Session
• ADHD & clowning
• Singing
• Clown & Ensemble

Day 2 Sessions

• Clown & Pantomime
• Clown In & Out of Character – combined with a photoshoot
• Play invitations for crowds
• Can I teach clowning?
• Skill sharing
• How can clowning offer resistance to far-right fascism?
• Can we create community rituals to respond to our current state of play in the world?
• Channelling the earth
• A really important discussion about nothing
• Would you like to dance?
• What can clown teach us about attending to grief?
• Clowning as a full time job
• Fool show
• Clown & theatre making
• Clown in Carnival
• What the fuck are paradigms?
• How are you?

How It All Worked

Responding to feedback from last year, at the beginning of each day’s Open Space, we offered a Seed Session, facilitated by the marvellous Alice Human. This was designed to help clowns more fully understand how Open Space technology works and develop a seed of an idea into a session offer.

The sessions took many forms, including: group discussions, performances / presentations, embodied research labs, led workshops, co-created creative explorations and pure play. Having the whole of Bristol University drama department allowed us to spread out, take space and be as noisy or quiet as we needed to be.

For the second year running, our Catering Manager Clown, Lucy Heard, worked with the Co-Exist Community Kitchen to provide our clowns with tasty, healthy, nourishing lunch and snacks, so that the conversations could continue through the breaks.

This year, we developed a new role, Dame of Documentation, expertly executed by the illustrious Bee Golding. Bee supported attendees to document their experiences, through curating and hosting the documentation station. This space offered many different invitations, including big pieces of paper stuck on walls, with open prompts for attendees to respond to, a huge roll of paper which attendees were encouraged to write a collective poem (starting at the bottom and moving upwards, of course), an area with all sorts of art materials, a QR code, linking to a google form to collect written reports, and many colourful bags dotted around the space with invitations for more private musings. Bee will be sharing some of the documentation soon…

Our Clown hosts (Holly, Robyn and Jan), our Wellbeing Support Clown (Alice), and our fantastic team of volunteers, known as the Clown Comrades (Eve, Grainne, Carla, Laura, Nia and Dani and Amy May), were on hand to support our community in every way imaginable, from creating accessible signage, to holding hands and breathing.

Analysis

Holly Stoppit’s inner Clown Academic, Patrica McNish, couldn’t help but have a little play with the session titles data. Eager to understand the themes that emerged during the weekend, she took those session titles and grouped them into the following categories:

• I have a wonderful thing I want to share with you!
• How does one become a clown + how does one make a living from it?
• How does one become a clown teacher?
• Exploring the various strands of clown performance.
• How can clowning heal our broken systems and alleviate suffering for people who live within them?
• How can clowning support our mental health?
• How does clowning intersect with neurodivergence?
• How can clowning connect us with our spirituality?
• Let’s just play together!

Patricia would like you to know that this is not a definitive analysis - more of a pondering on the general themes that this group of 75 clowns from different backgrounds were drawn to explore over one weekend in March 2026. She boiled this data down even further to three clear focal points: 1.) Clown as Performance, 2.) Applied Clowning (ie clowning as therapy, clowning as activism, clowning as social care, clowning as embodied research), and 3.) Clowns Playing Together for the Sake Of Play!

How did the attendees describe Clown Congress?

“Absolute mayhem and chaos but the best weekend to connect back to your inner clown! Sometimes it takes other clowns in the land to grow your spark again and if you need that boost- this is the weekend for it!”

“A fabulous space to unmask, explore our clown selves and have fun with other people.”

“...felt heartened by the gathering of so many creative, playful, responsive, and care-filled folk. I had conversations and interactions with some seriously open-hearted people doing amazing things to offer hope, transform pain, challenge oppression, and counter the feeling of being stuck on the downhill slide of humanity.”

“I really felt more than ever that clowning is just unmasking and being able to be your neurodivergent self in a playful way”

“I would absolutely be coming back and feel empowered to listen and learn and grow”

“Clown Congress is an invitation to anyone and everyone who wants to trust in the power of creative and curious humans gathering together without a strict plan. The Open Space format creates a non-hierarchical container to engage, experiment and explore ideas, where the people hold the possibility for anything to exist. You can dive right in or splash around on the edges. Unscripted, joyful and deeply moving.”

Thank You!

Massive thanks to our wonderful team for helping to create a joyful, nourishing, inspiring and meaningful weekend. A huge thank you to all of our attendees for bringing so much curiosity, generosity, enthusiasm, playfulness and compassion. A deep bow to Bristol University for letting us fill their drama department with our very important nonsense!