Full Tilt pairs 25 Zip Zap performers with 11 School of Rock musicians aged 11 to 33 for 7 shows at the Homecoming Centre from 23 to 26 September. Tickets are R180 to R250, and ticket income pays for Zip Zap’s 10 free youth programmes.
On the training floor at the Zip Zap Academy in Salt River, circus performers are building a show with a live band beside them. Nothing is pre-recorded. The music is played live, on stage, and the performers and the band come together in the moment.
Zip Zap Circus and School of Rock open Full Tilt at the District Six Homecoming Centre on 23 September for 7 performances, with the entire score played live, on stage, by the young musicians of School of Rock.
In most circus productions the music is pre-recorded and fixed, and the performers time themselves to it. In Full Tilt it is played live, so the performers and the band respond to each other as the show unfolds.
The venue is not incidental. The Homecoming Centre at 15 Buitenkant Street is the District Six Museum’s second building — the old Sacks Futeran warehouse, where the district’s tailors and seamstresses bought their fabric before more than 60,000 people were forcibly removed from District Six from 1966. It sits two blocks from the Museum, on the edge of the area nominated as a national heritage site, and reopened as the Homecoming Centre in 2022 after Eric Abraham handed the former Fugard Theatre to the Museum. Full Tilt’s Thursday shows fall on Heritage Day itself.
Zip Zap’s programmes are free to every participant and have been since Brent van Rensburg and Laurence Estève van Rensburg started the institution in 1992 with a trapeze bar in a tree in Langa. 1,493 young people came through the doors in 2025 and more than 25’000 since inception. 5 of the performers in Full Tilt came up through those programmes and are members of the professional troupe that tours internationally and is just back from a month in Reunion Island before they leave for Europe again in November. Ticket sales fund the training.
“When you watch these performers fly, you are watching what happens when a child is trusted, believed in and given room to become everything they can be. Full Tilt is that belief in motion, and I could not be prouder of what our artists, and our friends at School of Rock, have built together.” says Laurence Estève van Rensburg, CEO and co-founder of Zip Zap Circus.
“School of Rock and Zip Zap are united by a shared belief that the performing arts have the power to transform lives. While our disciplines may differ, our purpose is the same: to nurture confident, creative and resilient young people. We are incredibly proud to partner with Zip Zap on a production that showcases what can be achieved when organisations work together to invest in the next generation.” says Leigh Spaun, Marketing Director, School of Rock South Africa.
Full Tilt is supported by the Western Cape Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS).
Booking and details:
Dates: 23 to 26 September 2026, seven performances
Times: Wed 23 Sep 18h30 · Thu 24 Sep (Heritage Day) 14h30 and 18h30 · Fri 25 Sep 14h30 and 18h30 · Sat 26 Sep 14h30 and 18h30
Venue: The Homecoming Centre, 15 Buitenkant Street, District Six, Cape Town
Tickets: R250 Ground Level, R220 Level One, R180 Level Two, reserved seating via Webtickets
Book at: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1598730993
Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Age guidance: suitable for all ages
Access: the Homecoming Centre is wheelchair accessible, with a ramped entrance, a wheelchair hoist, and a lift between floors.
Parking: on-street parking on and around Buitenkant Street.