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...
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 20:00h by two circus performers...
L'Histoire du Soldat, Stravinsky's famous work, has been performed in many performances. But never as in this new production by Tilburg-based orchestra Kamerata Zuid i.c.w. performer Inez Wolters. Dressed in extravagant costumes, she interprets the various characters in this musical tale. Together with live music by Kamerata Zuid and input from circus performer Júlia Campistany, this...
Nick van der Heyden, queer circus performer, garnered approving laughter from a room full of circus students in Tilburg. He just explained that he had found a new lease of life by doing his performances as an acrobat from now on as a drag queen. 'They thought something of that here at school. There, the new circus was mainly a matter of making it as simple as possible...
When, at the end of his performance, he stands on top of a five-metre high pole, struggling to keep his balance, the audience holds its breath. As does Jesse himself, but he does not do so voluntarily. We watched him struggle for a performance with oxygen hoses and blood meters, pausing regularly to get air again. What if...
From 21 to 30 October, the number of open mouths, gaped eyes and squeezed buttocks in the heart of Tilburg increases dramatically. The Netherlands' largest circus festival will then descend on Spoorpark Tilburg for ten days of top-quality contemporary circus. The 10th edition of Festival Circolo presents an accessible and universal programme where the stories of circus artists responding to current...
Festival Circolo presents a special performance at four special locations in Tilburg in the run-up to the largest festival for contemporary circus in the Netherlands. 'Circus is my way of dreaming and giving hope. To live fully, whatever the conditions'. Jesse Huygh is a circus performer and suffers from cystic fibrosis, or cystic fibrosis, a genetic lung disease. Despite his illness,...
From 21 to 30 October, the number of open mouths, squinted eyes and squeezed buttocks in the heart of Tilburg increases dramatically. The Netherlands' largest circus festival, Festival Circolo, will then descend on Spoorpark Tilburg for ten days of top-quality contemporary circus. Today, the festival announces its programme for the 10th edition. A line-up filled with groundbreakers, daredevils and...
On 10 July 2022, the four nominees for this prize were announced for the BNG Bank Circus Prize 2022. From 32 graduation acts from the two Dutch higher vocational circus schools, the jury selected four that have a chance of winning the €5,000 prize. The nominees are; - Fenja Barteldres (Codarts) with her cyr wheel act 'Cyrrealism' - Harvey Cobb (Codarts) with his object manipulation act 'Something about Pink'...
A super big park in the middle of the city. Festival Circolo will move to Tilburg's Spoorpark in October 2022. With the festival heart in the Spoorpark and various satellite locations in the city centre, it will be one big circus party in Tilburg for ten days. With this move, Festival Circolo opts for a location in the middle of the city. The Spoorpark is the largest civic initiative in...
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