GIFFORDS Circus will be turning its big top into a Seventies pleasure dome for this year's show, which creators have revealed will be called Xanadu.

Opening on Friday, May 3, in its hometown of Stroud, Xanadu will take audiences back to Hyde Park in 1973, when the flower power movement was at its height.

Nell Gifford, show producer and founder, said: "2019 is the new summer of love and there’s a new dawn breaking at Giffords Circus as the big top is transformed into a lush green pleasure dome.

“There will be a hint of the Seventies in the styling of this year’s show and we are having great fun drawing inspiration from the music and art of this time.”

Hippies, hipsters, rock stars, musicians, wild women and global nomads with shamanic horses gather to play, sing, dance, protest and perform. Policemen and a family of out-of-towners get caught up in the celebrations.

Tweedy has a job in the kitchen as he thought everyone was talking about “Flour Power”. As evening approaches, the ever more chaotic event careers towards a joyful, transcendental finale.

Xanadu, directed once again by Cal McCrystal, will welcome a plethora of new acts in 2019, including Lil Rice, niece of Nell Gifford and daughter of Emma Bridgewater, who will impress the audience with her amazing cyr wheel act.

Jacob D’ Eustachio is a talented juggler originally from New York City who has performed in 13 countries on five continents.

Anna Rastsova will bring a new act never before seen in the Giffords Circus big top, the swinging trapeze.

And the show will introduce the daring Donerts, a family who hail from Hungary, making their UK debut with their pas de deux and vaulting act.

Giffords Circus favourite Tweedy the Clown will return to the ring fresh from his performance in the Everyman Theatre’s Waiting for Godot, as will the Curatola Brothers and Nell Gifford herself.

Xanadu will tour the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, London, Berkshire and Wiltshire throughout the summer.

For tickets visit giffordscircus.com