Zippos cleans up!

Here's a sight you don't often see - a big top being washed. The tent belongs to Zippos who seem to have been cleaning up in a different sense in 2013, with full houses and sold out shows reported all over England and Scotland.

A sight to gladden the heart of any showman - the crowds queue for sold out shows in Sheffield (above) and Banff (below) in two of many similar pictures of sold-out shows on Zippos' Facebook page.

This is what the inside of the Zippos tent looks like when its full - this time in sunny Hove.

And here's another full house (in Brighton, I think) from Zipposs' summer of sell-outs.

Let's hope Zippos is packing them in just as tightly in its current Christmas residency at Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park... and that every circus sees its big top just as full at every stop in 2014.

Click here to read an interview with Zippos owner Martin Burton.