After another year of dreaming and planning, the 10th edition of Festival Circolo - the largest circus festival in the Netherlands - is finally here today! Until Sunday 30 October, Tilburg's Spoorpark will transform into an oasis full of spectacle, acrobatics and humour.
The opening shot was given on 20 October 2022 at 8pm by two circus performers from House of Circuswhich lit up the arches of the Circle Vault in drag. The audience was then taken into the tent for the sold-out opening performance BITBYBIT from Collectif Malunés. In the performance, we see two brothers blow new life into a classic circus technique with enormous conviction: Jaws of Steel. They have a leather bit between their teeth, from one mouthpiece to the other a steel cable is stretched like an umbilical cord between two biting young dogs. They play a perilous game at the limit of their physical ability and only inches away from the audience.
Some highlights of the opening weekend
In "Sono Io?" (translated: Am I?), Danny & Pepijn Ronaldo, father and son and both clowns, try to get closer to each other. In this partly autobiographical, partly fantasised reality, they go in search of themselves and the other. A theatrical masterpiece, beautiful and funny, that gets to the heart of our humanity.
Sport is heroic. Sport is epic. Sporting performance Gregarious is none of that. Two competitive acrobats, dressed in 70s Adidas outfits, highlight the hidden side of sport. With trial and error, poking and prodding, frolicking and playing, as well as a thick dose of humour, they search for the truth hidden in games. For the twelfth man, the audience, this is an excellent workout for the laughing muscles.
Repro Project - Camiel Corneille
Camiel takes you through a trio of studies, each dealing with this theme in its own way: PRESS, MANCHINES and EXO. Each performance shows a physical reaction to a moving image. For instance, he tries to gain control over a moving wall, balances on a pyramid on its tip and shows bodies looking for contact and connection. Step into Camiel's world of thought where circus, visual art and philosophy merge into an extraordinary whole.
In the middle of the festival grounds are two half arches. A nice resting place for festival-goers, but also a playground for circus performers. Every so often, the metre-high iron arches rise into the air and the 'resting benches' turn into a kind of climbing apparatus. Every day, a number of performances are played in this circus vault for the inflowing audience, free and for nothing.
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