How we've helped The Vortexes

Bude-based performance group the Vortexes are not your average troupe of circus performers. With a focus on stilt walking, the company are in the business of creating characters from tress to skeletons, mirror ball men to sharks.

The Vortexes partner, Mark Tate, said this is their unique selling point.

“There are many groups doing similar things, but we’re not ones to dress up in stripey trousers. We’re all about amazing costumes and make up,” he said.

Recent years have been difficult from a work perspective for Mark, with the business being based in London prior to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic and bookings grinding to a halt.

“We were based in London and had an offer to come to Cornwall, keeping a room in London with our costumes and all our gear. Then the pandemic hit, and all our work just dried up. We were watching this happening before our eyes, a full summer’s work just completely disappearing,” Mark said.

As we shift our way toward a degree of normality, and with events and festivals back on the agenda, things are starting to pick up once again for Mark.  

“Things are starting to pick up, yes, but the issue we now find is the agents that we were working with for the past 20 years, many of them haven’t come back to work. Now we’re trying to navigate this new landscape, working out how best to promote what we do, and this is where we needed additional skills,” he said.

Enter, stage left, the Growth & Skills Hub.

Working with the team to increase their online footprint, Mark has been blown away by just how many people are out there across Cornwall willing to listen and support local business.

“I wish I’d done this six-months ago, that being my only regret, as we’re in our peak period now and I’m finding it difficult to put the skills we’re learning into practice while also maintaining our busy workload.

“I had fantastic conversations with people who genuinely wanted to help our business, and to know that this exists is just brilliant for business,” Mark said.

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub from May 2016 -  June 2023 was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.  The project received £2,848,591.49 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. 

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Skills Hub from October 2017 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Social Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project  received £2,885,993 of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.