When we were building the tent an elderly Geordie couple came by and the lady asked if this was some kind of circus. I replied "yes we are M’am - not just some kind of circus, but the local Newcastle Circus, and this is our tent the Magpie”.

"Eeee well that’s fantastic, we’ll have more like that thank you - a local circus! Much better than those foreigner's coming over like the Chinese Circus”

"Well I am Australian and I came over here as a foreigner”

“Australian?! You’re just the same as us"

I first came to Tyneside to be with my girlfriend, now wife, Helen. We’d met backstage in the circus and theatre fields at Glastonbury and ended up making a home, community and circus on Tyneside. Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, this city had a strong familiarity for me. Newcastle NSW is a post-industrial port city with a heritage in ships and coal, a one team town by the sea.

In some ways I was an economic migrant, in other ways I’m one of the lucky ones - the middle class wedge from an approved country with a valued passport who can afford to travel. The right kind of immigrant. 'One of us' as the elderly lady said.

Now I’m a dual citizen and a circus proprietor. I spend some of my time sponsoring foreign artists to get into the UK. Having gone through that process myself, I can see how hard it is getting now. The door to the UK is not open wide.

'The Magpie', outside Newcastle Civic Centre