THE colourful characters of Hudsons Circus may be locked down at the Queanbeyan Showground, but owner and manager Shane Lennon says they’re doing their best to keep spirits flying high.

Clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists, ringmasters and more are all living in caravans and campers on site in Queanbeyan while waiting for news on when they’ll be able to perform again.

“We’re frozen here and some of our team are taking it pretty hard,” said Shane.

“It’s sad because these people are normally very happy-go-lucky, they’re doing something they love, something they’re passionate about but suddenly that’s all been taken away from them.

“Luckily we have a good location here and we’ve got each other, we’re like a family and fortunately we can sit around a fire at night and chat.”

Shane comes from a family of circus owners and created this current show in 2013 along with his wife Nancy, a trapeze artist and acrobat.

“I was the kid who ran around with Tonka trucks and said I’m going to be a circus owner when I’m older,” he said.

But in his decades of touring, he says he’s never seen a challenge like this before.

“We kind of knew that it was coming, we had to stop operation on the Friday when Canberra went into lockdown,” he said.

“We’re very happy the government has stepped in and given everyone a disaster payment which this time covers all of our staff but there is nothing for the business, so we’re sitting paying the insurance, registration, ground rent and power bills.”

“It’s costing us about 25 per cent of our standard operating budget to stand here idle and we’ve had to refund a lot of tickets, a process we’re still in.”

The team is currently working through refunding 5000 tickets that were purchased leading up to the lockdown.

“There were so many upfront ticket sales not only here in Queanbeyan but also for our future towns like Tumut and Wagga Wagga,” said Shane.

While times are tough, he says the family of performers and staff have been doing what they can to stay in good spirits.

“In our family here we’ve got Brazilians, Peruvians, New Zealanders, Canadians and so many more so we all like to play soccer,” said Shane.

“We’ve certainly been sharpening up our skills there and we’ve also been doing a lot of maintenance to stop from going nutty.”

In another silver lining, Shane also says the show ground has been a “perfect” spot to be stopped for the group of seven ponies and two camels they’re travelling with.

“Because the showground is so huge we’ve been able to move the animals around a lot,” he says.

“Instead of getting a lawn mower out we’re just getting the animals to graze so they’re pretty happy and content their yards are bigger than normal.”

Looking towards the future, Shane says he’s ultimately optimistic.

“The council has been fantastic with us, accommodating us and not telling us to move on and I believe at this point they’re still going to allow us to finish the season once the lockdown is over,” he said.

“I think a few weeks out of lockdown people will still be scared and thinking about vaccinations so we’re trying to get all of our staff vaccinated so that people know it’s as safe as can be.”

Shane says he’s been “blown away” by the attendance the circus has seen prior to lockdown even with restrictions, as well as the understanding of the community.

“I want to thank the townspeople, the people who have had to have tickets refunded have been kind, saying they feel for us and they can’t wait for us to be open again,” he said.

“We feel very loved here in Queanbeyan and we’re looking forward to getting back to putting smiles on people’s faces.”