AN EAST Lancashire acrobat who has joined a macabre travelling circus today said of her colleagues: "They may be freaks but they're lovely people."

Emma Lewis, 22, who grew up in a cottage on the side of spooky Pendle Hill, is set to appear in 'The Circus of Horrors,' at King George's Hall, Blackburn.

The travelling show boasts an array of freaks including the stretchy man, a 'pickled person' emerging from a bottle and 'vampires' flying through the air suspended by their hair.

Emma, a former pupil of St Christopher's CE High School, Accrington, performs on 'silks,' where she completes acrobatics suspended by the material.

She said: "It's a really nice group of people, they are lovely and very friendly, even though they are freaks.

"I think strange is just normal folk really."

Emma has only been with the circus for two weeks and performs with silks for the first time at King George's Hall.

The former Wheatley Lane Primary School pupil studied theatre and performing arts as a teenager at Blackburn College before running away from her course to join a circus based in the Millennium Dome. After that she performed in minor theatre roles before joining 'The Circus of Horrors.'

She admits she is nervous but excited about her performances, in which she also has knives thrown at her as she revolves on a wheel.

The circus is the brainchild of ring-master Doktor Haze, who set it up in 1995.

His freakish talent for the show is plucked from all over the world, with acrobats from the Congo, a contortionist from Moscow and a man with stretchy skin from Grimsby.

'Garry Stretch' who can earn up to £5,000 a week from public appearances, said: "I don't mind being a freak. It's a great buzz when you have the audience laughing."

The Circus of Horrors is at King George's Hall on November 15.