I was never a fan of Circuses or Fairs when I was a child. I was not a fan of performing animals or clowns. I was always a fan of a great big tent appearing somewhere locally, just the arrival of the tent was enough for me.

I have become older, and Circuses have reinvented themselves. Music festivals have big tents so live music and skillful human circus acts are both something  which I now enjoy in a big tent as an adult. I still prefer to observe the excitement of fairs from a distance and I avoid clowns and, as a subset, magicians.

This freshly erected big tent in a local park still gave me that conflicting thrill feeling, a sense of happy anticipation even though I may still choose not to participate in whatever is going on inside.

Such was my dislike of clowns and magicians as a small person they were often part of my dreaming world. Never nightmares, just quiet dreams where I wandered through whole towns built of big tents, successfully avoiding the things I didn’t like.

I don’t believe I am Coulrophobic because I could easily engage with both clowns and magicians. I just choose not to.

Sadly there is not a word for people who just love big tents for their own sake. But I am that person. Day or night.

For this blog, I pondered what my best big tent experiences have been.

Authors reading their own books or very skillful actors reading someone else’s book to a large and enthralled audience at a Literary Festival.

Discovering a new band or artist in a big tent at a music festival.

The flower tent at agricultural shows.

DJ sets in a tent, wherever that can occur.

New Age stuff, even if it is nonsense dressed in tie dye. The smells are always fantastic.

The produce tent at a village fete. Again the smells but also the people watching.