Hippodrome cancels opening night so visitors can watch England

The Circus didn't want people to have to choose between them and the football.

Author: Abi SimpsonPublished 7th Jul 2021

The Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth has cancelled its grand reopening tonight so that visitors don't have to choose between them and watching England in their Euro 2020 semi-final.

The venue was due to launch its summer programme this evening but instead will kick off tomorrow night.

It's so England fans who also had tickets for the show didn't have to miss out on seeing the Three Lions take on Denmark at Wembley tonight.

Jack Jay is the Director, Producer and Ringmaster at the Hippodrom, he told us this wasn't something he was expecting: "So this was kind of our big gala opening night, and of all the things on the list that I thought might cause us to postpone, England making the semi-final, to my shame, wasn't top of that list."

He explained how they ended up at this decision: "Once the result happened, we started straight away getting emails and messages through from customers saying what's going to happen, we feel really torn, we've got tickets for the show and we're so excited to see that, but we've got family and friends who want to watch this massive game.

"There's plenty of opportunities for us to get the show and for people to come and experience the show.

"And the last thing we want is for people to be there but kind of have their minds elsewhere, or be half checking their phones, so we thought this was a nice opportunity to hopefully get the best of both worlds."

We asked Jack if they had any similar plans for Sunday night... just in case: "As luck would have it, and it makes me think that there could be some fate involved, so unrelated to the football Sunday night we actually don't have a show.

"And also Monday is a day off as well which is pretty incredible because we never have days off, so I don't quite know how that happened, the stars aligned."

As an England fan himself, Jack told us this has worked out well for everyone.

He told he thinks tonight could be a bit more stressful than the last match: "The last game I would was bizarrely not stressful, I couldn't quite believe what it was like.

"Halfway through the game, the biggest drama was the fact I couldn't order, Dominoes website went down, and I couldn't order a pizza.

"I do feel quietly confident.

"But I can't help myself as a long-term England fan, these are always the moments that these are the games where they get you, you win the ones you're not supposed to.

"I'm really really hopeful that we can make it to the final.

"And I do think it would be incredible for the whole country if we do, so I'm keeping everything crossed."

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