Hippodrome Circus Great Yarmouth Review

Disclaimer: We received tickets in exchange for this post, as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own

If you are heading to Great Yarmouth you really have to visit the Hippodrome Circus while there. This was the first time we had been but I had heard so many great things that we just couldn’t wait to witness the thrills for ourselves and WOW it was absolutely amazing from start to finish, and far more than I was expecting.

The Historic Hippodrome is Britain’s only surviving total circus building, built in 1903 by the legendary circus showman George Gilbert.

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How long is the Hippodrome Circus show?

We saw the Summer Circus & Water Spectacular show, which is two hours long with a 20-minute interval halfway through. There are two shows a day, one at 2.30 am and another at 7.30 pm. Both shows are the same each day, so you can choose which suits you. Obviously, for very young children, the early show may be best.

Hippodrome Circus Ticket Prices

Ticket prices range from £14 – £18 for children depending on the seats you choose and from £23 – £28 for adults.

There are different shows throughout the year – this summer spectacular runs until 17th of September 2023, the Halloween Spooktacular runs from 20th – 31st of October 2023 and a Christmas Spectacular from the 9th of December 2023 to 7th of January 2024.

The Summer Spectacular Circus & Water Show features some of the world’s greatest circus acts alongside a hilarious comedy duo who really do make this show. Jack Jay and Johnny Mac get the audience rolling around in their seats from the start. Bouncing jokes off of each other and audience members too – no one is exempt and sit close to the stage you may get popcorn thrown at you, jokes aimed at you or in the second half you are likely to get wet too!

Hippodrome Circus Great Yarmouth Review

During the first half of the show, you will be amazed by acrobatic displays, jugglers, dancers, and dare-devil acts. Throughout the entire show, you will be glued to the acts in front of you. Once the bikes hit the stage, you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it. If you’re anything like us, you’ll be holding your breath for the entire duration of this part of the show.

The bikes were my favourite part of the show, starting with one rider entering a rather small domed cage and performing loops around the sphere at great speed. Next up, another bike/rider enters, and a similar performance unfolds before you. Just when you thought that was absolutely incredible, a third bike/rider enters this rather small and now over-crowded cage performing a breathtaking daredevil act, and finally, a fourth rider enters to amaze everyone. Emmy and I couldn’t breathe during this part of the show – the domed cage was so small that any tiny slip could have been fatal. We couldn’t take our eyes off of the riders; it was like nothing we had ever seen before, and the sheer skill was spectacular.

During the second half of this show, the circus rink sinks down to reveal a gigantic swimming pool, this happens so gradually that you don’t realise it is happening until you are watching synchronised swimmers performing in front of you. This is an original 1903 feature which can not be seen anywhere else.

It was just amazing throughout and everything flowed so well throughout the show. Jack and Johnny do such an incredible job of entertaining the whole audience that set changes can happen in front of you and you don’t even notice them happening.

Capturing this show in photo form was so hard to do and you can’t really appreciate the amazement of it by just looking at photos. Here is an Instagram reel I made instead to show some of these incredible acts.

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A post shared by Clare Nicholas – UK Blogger (@clarenicholasuk_)

After the show you can pay a small fee to visit the Peter Jay backstage museum, where you can view over a hundred years of circus memorabilia and see: