Topic: Clown fear rocks festival organisers

[Simon]

Don't send in the clowns: they scare the crowd

By Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent

A rock festival has been forced to drop its circus theme because many ticket-holders are scared of clowns.

Last year the Bestival, on the Isle of Wight, broke the record for the biggest fancy dress party when 10,000 turned up as cowboys or Indians. This year organisers wanted people in oversized shoes and curly red wigs but changed their minds after complaints from ticket-holders who suffer from coulrophobia, a fear of clowns.

Yesterday the festival, which will take place in September, issued a statement cancelling the theme. Rob da Bank, a Radio 1 DJ and Bestival organiser, said: ?We have had so many people with clown phobias contact us I am worried everyone might end up hiding in the woods.?

Johnny Depp, the actor, is a sufferer of a phobia that, he says, may stem from a childhood experience. It induces rapid breathing, nausea and feelings of dread.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2260997.html

[Rodders]

Hello Johnny.  Now what was that you were saying about clowns?

[mistybear]

That's not scary, but this bloody clown is.