Circus City

Registered charity 1181762 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as HANDSTAND ARTS

Circus City (previously known as Handstand Arts) works to advance the arts through the presentation of circus performances and other arts for the public benefit, in particular but not exclusively for those people living in Bristol and the surrounding areas

Objects

THE OBJECT OF THE CIO IS TO ADVANCE THE ARTS THROUGH THE PRESENTATION OF CIRCUS PERFORMANCES AND OTHER PERFORMANCE ARTS FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, IN PARTICULAR BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY FOR THOSE PEOPLE LIVING IN BRISTOL AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bristol, City of, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a deficit of £7,655 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in unrestricted reserves of £23,040. The trustees note that reserves are held to manage potential closure costs, specifically targeting 10% of average festival income. The independent examiner confirmed that accounting records were kept and financial statements accorded with those records.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 01/04/2021 (received 04/04/2022, 62 days after the 01/02/2022 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Trustees · trustee networks

• KATE WEBBchair
• Amy Nicholls
• Anna Duncan
• Haleema Maria Mekani
• Manya Benenson
• Sascha Karissa Goslin

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CIRCUS ARTS.

• NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CIRCUS ARTS income £2.9m
• NOFIT STATE COMMUNITY CIRCUS LTD income £2.4m
• CIRK HES LTD income £149k
• BRISTOL CITY OF SANCTUARY income £180k
• THE BRISTOL IMPROV THEATRE LIMITED income £346k
• CITY OF BRISTOL ROWING CLUB income £255k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.