Attending CIRCa and Fresh Circus #5 this year was both exciting and fortuitous for us. In 2018, editor Kim Campbell attended Fresh Circus #4 (hosted by Festival Up) in Brussels, Belgium along with fellow INCAM members. This year, both Kim and co-founder Andrea Honis decided to attend CIRCa just before heading over to Madrid (as CircusTalk was invited to present a workshop and be on the FIRCO jury.) Here are a few of Kim’s observations about the much-lauded CIRCa in Auch, France.

If you’ve been involved with circus for a minute, you know that France is the gold standard when it comes to models of how a circus ecology can thrive, grow, and function. I’ve heard various numbers mentioned over the years. There are over 200 circus companies. There are 400 plus circus artists. There are hundreds of shows. I have not seen a study to verify these numbers, but from what I’ve seen in France, I would guess that those numbers are conservative. The French government stepped in around 1978 to offer a helping hand and ever since, circus schools, circus artists and companies have been sprouting up and networking to create a web of shows, festivals and residencies. This is an oversimplification of course, but it is very interesting to experience first-hand how all of the French and European organizations collaborate to present so...