Liverpool’s circus pioneers Freefall are delighted to announce that their Arts Council England bid for funding to support the city’s first ever Festival of Contemporary Circus this November has been successful.
This year’s festival is the exciting pilot of a new annual event, which aims to raise the profile of Liverpool as a centre for Circus Arts and place the city firmly on the national circus map.
Cirqadia is a pioneering weekend of events, produced by Freefall, celebrating the talent of UK based circus performers and providing a platform for new work from performers across the region as well as allowing young people new to circus the opportunity to learn from the professionals.
2019 sees the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that kicked off the LGBTQ+ rights movement in 1969, and as queer circus practioners themselves the founders of Freefall – Nick Hunt and Barry Welsh – have made the strong presence of Queer performers within circus the focus of their first circus arts festival in the city:
Over the weekend audiences will be able to experience two new works from leading British circus artists – Sadiq Ali, Hauk Pattison and Laura Murphy. The main event on the Saturday night will feature a double bill of Sadiq and Hauk performing “The Chosen Haram” which is a newly commissioned work for the festival, and Laura performing “Contra” which is currently touring in Europe and was a highlight of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Six new works from emerging artists will also be premiering on the Friday night in a special showcase event – hosted by international circus and burlesque star Velma Von Bon Bon – that will allow the performers to try out groundbreaking and experimental performances with a focus on gender, sexuality and diversity in contemporary circus.
Workshops and a symposium of talks and discussions centred on contemporary circus arts will also take place over the weekend and a new outreach programme will give young LGBTQ+ people the opportunity to try aerial performance along with other circus skills before developing their own short pieces to show before a live audience in the week following the festival.
The Cirqadia circus festival will take place over the weekend of 8-10 November with the scratch night and the circus performance night taking place at District in The Baltic Triangle on the 8 and 9 November respectively.
All workshops and the symposium will take place at The Florence Institute (The Florrie) in Toxteth daytimes. The outreach project will culminate in a performance shared with family and friends at The Florrie. Freefall have also announced the call-out for queer centric circus performers to submit ideas for the Friday night showcase event.
Full weekend programme here