Figueres International Circus Festival to host 24 acts never before seen in Europe

Barcelona (CNA).- The 5^th edition of the Figueres International Circus Festival, which will take place from the 25^th to the 29^th of February, will host 24 acts which haven’t been seen in Europe before.Pyongyang’s National Circus, which will leave North Korea for the first time ever, will be amongst the most outstanding companies, together with two shows from Chinese companies which received awards at the WuQiao Festival. 17 different circus disciplines will be presented at the festival, some of them from countries which have never taken part in the Figueres festival such as Peru, Taiwan, Armenia and Italy, to name but a few. Another novelty of the 2016 edition will be the new tent with capacity for more than 30,000 spectators. Figueres, a city near the Costa Brava and the French border, plans to become the Word Circus Capital by 2018, coinciding with the 250^th anniversary of the arrival of the circus in Spain. 

China’s Sheyang Acrobatic Troupe will present its head balancing show ‘Fan dance’ and the WuQiao Arts School of China will perform ‘Qin Warriors’, a show based on unicycle balancing. Both companies received awards at the WuQiao Festival.

Regarding the aerial disciplines, the Canadian show ‘Duo 2-Zen-0’ is one of the most anticipated. The performance, in which a couple display Michelangelo’s fresco figures, previously received an award at Moscow’s IDOL festival.

Pyongyang’s National Circus, known for its application of a unique flying trapeze technique which is characterised by a quadruple front and back flip along with a triple seesaw jump, will present its show ‘Funambulists at great height’. The artists will perform at a height of more than 9 metres and without harnesses of any kind.

The aerial ribbon show by Ukrainian company History Makers, Idols, from Russia, Tim & Taisia, a Chinese-Russian coproduction, and Golden Dream, from Italy, will also perform in this section.

Martial arts and gymnastics will also be present in the form of Peruvian company Duo Vitalys, together with the UkrainianZhygaltsov Brothers and the Vardanyan Brothers, from Armenia.

Duo Miracle and the Mongolian company Swan Lake will be one of the most outstanding acts in the contortionist category.

So far, Figueres International Circus Festival has already sold 22,000 tickets, more than two-thirds of the 5^th edition’s total capacity. Despite this positive figures, the festival’s director Genís Matabosch admitted that the costs have not yet been covered. “The artistic quality will be a priority in 5^th edition of the festival” explained Matabosch. The budget for this upcoming edition is 592,000 euros, but a third of this goes directly towards covering the production costs, including for travel and visa processing.