Organised by the Lido circus school in Toulouse and held at the Espace Culturel Altigone in Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, Festival Nez Rouges (The Festival of Red Noses) is, at you might reasonably guess, a festival dedicated to the various manifestations of the contemporary circus clown – but slanted toward lighter work for families and young audiences.

At the festival in 2011 there's the widely-toured Ukrainian theatre company Mimirichi with their broadly accessible, feel-good Paper World; old hands Les Acrostiches, a troupe of three acrobats and two musicians, who're heavy on the object manipulation and who here perform C'est quoi ce cirque!; plus there are a couple of pieces from young performers – Simili Circus (a troupe of eighteen clowns, all between 13 and 17 years old) and a performance of Mic Mac, the end of year show developed by Le Lido's own students.