Festival Circolo 2024: more intimate than ever before

Netherlands' largest circus festival launches programme 14th edition

From 18 to 27 October, Tilburg's Spoorpark will once again transform into the vibrant festival heart of Festival Circolo. For ten days, the largest circus festival in the Netherlands will present top-level contemporary circus. Today, Festival Circolo launches the programme of its 14th edition, in which it seeks intimacy between visitor and performer.

Festival Circolo 2024 will be more intimate than ever before. The programme draws visitors in close to share stories about big themes and deep feelings from this closeness. Through this intimacy, we discover that we often stare too much at our own navel, while a look into someone's eyes, hearing a voice or a story told in body language touches much deeper when the distance is reduced. Festival Circolo 2024 offers the chance to hold your heart close and really feel it beating.

Circus history in the arena

After the five sold-out performances of Sono Io in 2022, the Flemish circus family Ronaldo returns to Spoorpark with their family show Da Capo; an all-in-one circus spectacle that takes you through a circus history of 180 years spanning seven generations. With as many as 19 people in the arena. From the elderly great-grandmother to the youngest great-grandchild. One big picture book with delightful live music. A feast for the eyes and ears.

Adulated epic

Another figurehead on the programme of Festival Circolo 2024 is the acclaimed show La Chute des Anges From Cie L'Oublié(e). Celebrated director and choreographer Raphaëlle Boitel takes you on a minimalist and stylish adventure through a dystopian universe filled with amazing acrobatics, illusions, dark humour and beautiful music. Circus of the outer category, or as The New York Times put it: "Extraordinarily conceived and incredibly moving (...) Raphaëlle Boitel finds the power to break our hearts." 

Everything and everyone

Festival Circolo 2024 is for everyone, and this is reflected in the diverse programme. From dry-comic family shows to avant-garde circus and everything in between. For instance, visitors can feast their eyes on CERAMIC CIRCUS by Swiss acrobat Julian Vogel, a circus talent that explosively brings together ceramic art and circus. The French company Un Loup Pour L'Homme takes visitors on a theatrical, acrobatic AND musical adventure full of risk and dynamism. In addition, visitors can discover more than 20 performances by young and more established makers in the Spoorpark, Schouwburg and Concertzaal Tilburg, Theater de Nieuwe Vorst and other locations throughout the city centre.

Bridging gaps

More than ever, Festival Circolo is committed to bridging the gap between audience and performer, and between festival and environment. Barriers are being broken down and efforts are being made to create a ground-level and equal experience, bringing everyone as close together as possible. As part of these efforts, the festival restaurant has been adapted so that visitors can dine side by side with performers. This gives everyone a chance to briefly become part of the circus family, before the acrobats move on, out into the wider world.