Cirkorama Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary

The Cirkorama circus theatre festival marks its tenth year this June with 20 shows, two gala performances, workshops and cultural events running from 18 to 28 June. Over its nine previous editions the festival has drawn more than 35,000 spectators and staged close to 100 shows.

The main venue is the Centro Cultural Provincial María Victoria Atencia (MVA) in Malaga city, which hosts seven performances and a gala. As a new feature this year, three outdoor street shows will take place on the sports ground behind the building and are free to enter.

The festival also tours 14 towns across the province, from Ronda to Benaque, with all performances free of charge (prior booking required in Alhaurín de la Torre and Coín).

Highlights of the programme include Empaque by Andalusian company Chicharrón Circo Flamenco and ¡Ahora!, a solo show by celebrated clown Maite Guevara. Basque company Zirkozaurre brings a poetic diabolo piece called Ejes, Catalan company Bragacadavra presents an acrobatic dance and clown work reflecting on physical and emotional falls, and the festival closes with a variety gala hosted by El Gran Dimitri.

There's plenty going on beyond the main shows too. Malaga-born Miguel Ángel Moreno, a National Circus Prize winner, leads a hands-on laboratory in circus techniques, and a day of industry talks called Málaga en Clave de Circo (in Spanish) brings together national and local professionals. Two community projects round things out, with one focused on bringing the festival to families in vulnerable neighbourhoods and another inviting participants to co-create a quirky "survival guide for people with vertigo" tied to the Bragacadavra show.

The festival was launched in 2015 and, aside from a pause during the pandemic in 2020, has grown steadily into one of Andalucía's most established dates in the contemporary circus calendar.