This is just what sheffield needs.

In between the housing crisis, the post office getting shut and the floods i was just thinking 'what we need here, is circus skills'.

See you there.

wiggans' peer: So long as there are social and economic problems in the city, nobody should have any fun? Isn't a workshop teaching people new skills - even if their primary purpose is having fun - a good thing?

this is a workshop of circus skills (not activism) and it is free. Attending the workshop does not mean that the world is perfect or that the world will become perfect with the workshop! it is just if you are interested in joining a skills sharing, free workshop. that is all.

the clown school is free? Right. So is taking a nice walk in the park. What exactly is news or political about this?

"What exactly is news or political about this? "

The event is news. And if by political you mean how is this relevant to activism, well these are skills that have been used by activists to great effect both in riot situatons in the UK and in the warzone that is Iraq.

I've done computer security workshops in the past and the same argument could be applied - how is this political ? It isn't. Nobody made that argument though as they had the imagination to see how it is relevant here both offensively and defensively. Learning how to make a lock-on tube or tripod isn't the full skill-set you need to effect social-change.