The quality of dreams…

Escaping notions such as “traditional” and “contemporary,” the world’s oldest circus festival shows the way to a modern, popular circus that is still lavish in thrills and danger. From a fugacious, raw miracle such as a quadruple somersault, to the more crafty and persistent breeze of thirty horses glowing in the dark, the Monte Carlo Circus Festival seems to guarantee Hemingway’s definition of circus: “The only spectacle that, while you watch it, gives the quality of a truly happy dream.” Perhaps because this Festival was conceived by a prince, or perhaps it is from the royal spirit of the travelling dynasties each year, the crowds still gather here in thousands. The Festival, in its  44th year of existe...