A dedicated acrobat from Kesgrave who left Suffolk eight years ago to tour the UK as a circus performer has returned for his first hometown performance.

Craig Attmere, 27, joined the Academy of Circus Arts eight years ago after finishing his performing arts course at Suffolk College, and toured the UK as a trapeze artist with a host of different circus companies.

Now, as a member of the Circus Wonderland tour that promotes British talent, Craig has returned to Ipswich for his debut hometown performance at Trinity Park today.

“This is the first time and I am excited because all my family still live here and all my old school friends will be coming to the shows.

“Now they can actually see what I do live.”

Craig was inspired to become a trapeze artist after his grandparents took him to a circus in Chantry Park when he was aged around 10 or 11.

From there the determined acrobat worked hard to study dance and drama at Kesgrave High School, before going on to study performing arts at college and joining the circus academy. “It’s great to show what I can do,” he said.

“What’s nice about this circus is it is all English performers and we are all under the age of 30. We are trying to promote young British talent because there is an idea you have to be Chinese or Russian to be a circus performer.

“We have a lot of homegrown talent.”

While out on tour for most of the year, between November and February Craig is now based in Somerset where he spends the winter training alongside the circus’s other performers.

But Craig has already been enjoying his hometown return, having celebrated his 27th birthday with family and friends on Monday.

“We have been doing practice yesterday morning and the tent is up – we are all ready to go,” he added.

“I am just excited and want to go out there now.”

Circus Wonderland will feature performances at 4.30pm and 7.30pm from today until Friday, with shows at 2pm and 5pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday.

For tickets visit www.circuswonderland.co.uk or call 07531 612240.