Festival Circolo can look back on a sunny and smooth 12th edition. During the autumn holidays, the Netherlands' largest circus festival took over the heart of Tilburg to make people's hearts beat faster. More than 10,000 paid visitors plopped down in the plush and stands to enjoy contemporary circus in beautiful, funny and blood-curdling performances. With extra...
Large spinning steel behemoths, mowing blades or relentless hands of a clock, which grind you as a human being if you don't duck, or jump, or roll away in time. There were two of them during Festival Circolo in Tilburg, this year, and it always impresses. It happened at Un Loup pour l'homme in the Spoorpark and at La Chute des Anges in...
"We all want to play, but labels sometimes make that difficult. Then you start doubting your qualities." Instead, Dutch and Brazilian choreographer Guilherme Miotto (45) wants to break down boundaries and make art accessible to everyone. On Thursday 24 October, his double performance 'Unpunished Youth x Poles' can be seen at Festival Circolo in Tilburg. Guilherme Miotto is more interested in what makes us...
Biogas. It works. In Tilburg, they have taken a big step in making circus romance more sustainable. The campfires, from the first edition the anchor of Circus Festival Circolo, have been modified. No longer fuelled by increasingly soggy firewood, beautiful yellow flames now play around glowing chunks. The wood fire became a gas fire, but designed by a pyrotechnician with circus experience. The flames...
She sometimes sees people drop out when she tells them that her performance is inspired by burlesque. "They often have certain preconceptions about this and think it's 'something only dirty men want to see'." It remains difficult to convince people to take the first step and attend a burlesque show, says Baines. The twenty-two-year-old South African loves...
It is mouse-still in the studio auditorium of Korzo in The Hague. A few dozen spectators in the stands, a tangle of bodies on stage, shuffling, sighing and exerting their utmost strength, sliding, climbing and balancing on, over and under each other. Impressive, sensual too, this continuous movement that does not run from applause moment to applause moment, but rather lets you breathlessly follow how it...
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....
Going over the edge, exploring and pushing boundaries, pushing the limits of bystanders' comprehension, performing feats no one expects. And seeing gnomes walking through a forest. Or reading things in water. Seeing half a boy save the world. The first 11 days of August 2024 were legendary, never to be forgotten. And all in the...
Street theatre festival in Tilburg's Piushaven is about to start Festival Circolo is proud to present the second edition of Porto Circolo, the free street theatre festival taking place during the Tilburg Fair. On Saturday 20 July and Sunday 21 July, the Piushaven in Tilburg will be transformed into a vibrant stage for circus, dance and theatre, suitable for young and old. Throughout the weekend,...
During a festive gathering in a bulging circus tent, Erik Berkey was declared the winner of the BNG Bank Circus Prize 2023 . With his impressive act, Erik managed to convince the jury as this year's most outstanding circus graduate. Erik Berkey received a cheque of € 7,500 from Harald Bergmann (mayor of Middelburg and board member of the BNG Culture Fund). The presentation of the...
Ten days of circus, this year in truly autumnal conditions for the first time in ages. Storm and patches of rain, flooded lawns really only enhance the fun between and especially in the tents set up in the Railway Park. I take home three lessons from it. 1: Circus is a lonely profession Was once a circus performer someone who was one...
Ostriches, as droll as they are graceful, disappearing into man-sized reeds at dusk. I saw the sculpture yesterday in Tilburg's Spoorpark, where Circus Festival Circolo has settled again this year. As simple as poignancy can be, you can make your own story out of what good performers present to you. The nine handstand specialists of Collectif d'équilibristes showed me in Le Complexe de...
"I think you can apply this idea of consent culture to families, friends, leisure groups, anywhere, if you like." On Friday 13 October 2023, Tilburg's Circus Festival Circolo will open with a seminar on the premises of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Keynote speaker at that seminar is Sabine Marringer. She will come with a special message, she announced: "I sent...
"My accent, my heart is with the people involved in circus. I therefore want to put them at the centre." Lucho Smit (1983) has been artistic director of Tilburg circus festival Circolo, which starts on 13 October, since April this year. He wants to put the festival, which has been around for 15 years, in the middle of the...
Det Rijven (1956) feels more vulnerable than 20 years ago: "I am not only afraid of falling. I also realise that my body is like an old bicycle that occasionally plays music and just wants to stop. Or has a flat tyre. That's really more often than before. You never know if the bike is still on the...
Due to sudden injuries, there were some last-minute changes, but today Festival Circolo has unveiled its complete programme. From 13 to 22 October, the Netherlands' biggest circus festival will once again descend on Tilburg for ten days of contemporary circus of the highest quality. Following the announcement of, among others, Circus Baobab's acclaimed "Yé!" and audience favourite "En Attendant...
The Netherlands' largest contemporary circus festival with more than 100 performances to Tilburg Open mouths, squeezed bottoms and squinted eyes. From 13 to 22 October 2023, Festival Circolo descends on Tilburg for emotion, daredevilry and groundbreaking performances. The largest contemporary circus festival in the Netherlands will feature more than 100 performances for ten days at the cutting edge of...
Biggest festival for contemporary circus descends on Tilburg from 13 to 22 October From 13 to 22 October 2023, Tilburg will be home to Festival Circolo, the biggest festival for contemporary circus in the Netherlands. Here you will see boundary-breakers, go-getters and top artistic athletes highlighting and celebrating our differences in performances that everyone can relate...
Programme Several free performances can be visited at Porto Circolo every day. The programme includes performances by Close Act, Lapso Cirk, Zinzi and Evertjan, EAEO, Skypunch Collective, Fabuloka, Hendrick Jan meets Merel Kamp and House of Circus. Want to know more about the programme and performance times? Check out the website! Locations Porto Circolo takes place in and around Piushaven. Both...
From 1 April, Lucho Smit will become the new artistic director of Festival Circolo, the largest contemporary circus festival in the Netherlands. He succeeds Wendy Moonen and has ambitious plans to position the festival even more strongly in the Dutch and international performing arts sector, improve interaction between circus creators and audiences and develop socially relevant circus projects. The festival will take place at Spoorpark Tilburg from 13 to 22 October 2023.
On Sunday 30 October, the winner of the BNG Bank Circus Prize 2022 was chosen at the special closing performance of Festival Circolo in Tilburg. Despite sitting at home with corona, Harvey Cobb managed to convince the jury with his video presentation of his hilarious act ' Something about Pink'. A fellow nominee received a cheque for €5,000 for him from the hands of...
Tilburg-based chamber orchestra Kamerata Zuid, with dancer and choreographer Inez Wolters, performs Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat as a family performance. The performance will premiere this week at Festival Circolo, Holland's largest circus festival, also in Tilburg. Wolters is an all-rounder. With Swarmers, she stages dance on location, with audience participation. She also leads with her wild and...
When I was about 16 and a bit clumsy, I did a clowning workshop at the cultural centre nearby. It taught me how to trip over my own feet. Unfortunately, I haven't forgotten that since. This pretty much finished my knowledge and love of circus. Because however clever it all was, I was...
The circus performance EZ pulls you out of your comfort zone and raises uncomfortable questions like: what do we agree to without knowing it, and: what do you do when someone on stage voluntarily tortures and manipulates themselves? In their performance, the non-binary Elena Zanzu, a graduate of Montreal's National Circus School and master in philosophy at the University in...
There he sits, at the top, enjoying the view. Camiel Corneille has just conquered his own work, a hellish instrument made of a four-by-four wooden plate that can turn in all directions except the right one. A moving balance beam that can also give you a big whack. Camiel Corneille designed it himself and tackles the thing...
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