diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 31c686a0e..75e1fa8d4 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -142,7 +142,8 @@ jobs:
     executor: win32-executor
     steps:
       - checkout
-      - run: sudo apt update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive sudo apt install -y ninja-build binutils meson gcc g++ pkg-config gtk-doc-tools libfreetype6-dev libglib2.0-dev libcairo2-dev libicu-dev libgraphite2-dev python3 python3-pip git g++-mingw-w64-i686 zip
+      - run: sudo apt update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive sudo apt install -y ninja-build binutils gcc g++ pkg-config gtk-doc-tools libfreetype6-dev libglib2.0-dev libcairo2-dev libicu-dev libgraphite2-dev python3 python3-pip git g++-mingw-w64-i686 zip
+      - run: pip3 install meson==0.56.0 --upgrade
       - run: .ci/build-win32.sh
       - store_artifacts:
           path: harfbuzz-win32.zip