CULTURAL PAVEMENT.

The most beautiful circus in town!

At the 8th Regensburg Kulturpflaster on the last weekend of the summer vacations (September 6 to 8, 2024), international street circus stars will come to Regensburg’s old town. The audience chooses their own program and pays voluntarily – with hat money. On the last weekend of the summer vacations (September 6 to 8, 2024), Regensburg’s old town will be transformed into a large open-air circus. On Neupfarrplatz, four men from Belgium will perform gymnastics on an installation of magical doors and rotating walls (Cie Circumstances). In the Fechthof, an acrobat from France swings through the branches of a dead tree accompanied by beguiling guitar sounds (Compagnie du Courcirkoui). On Haidplatz, a well-dressed clown from New Zealand boxes the silliest fight of all time. (Fraser Hooper). And these are just three of the 23 shows in the cobblestone arena of Regensburg’s old town.

Daring aerial act: The French-Swiss artist company “Cirque la Compagnie” in 2022 on Neupfarrplatz (Photo: Hubert Lankes)

Originating from a small street circus festival in summer 2010, the Regensburg Kulturpflaster is now taking place for the eighth time – organized by the Mischkultur e.V. association with the support of the city of Regensburg. To kick things off on Thursday, September 5, the German champions of comedy magic will be coming to the Thon Dittmer Palais: Siegfried & Joy, magicians of the year 2023 and social media superstars (#goldencurtain). Their tricks are deliberately imperfect, their performance a satire of the art of magic. Her wardrobe is as extravagant as that of her “role models” Siegfried and Roy. Fortunately, there are no real tigers or lions in her show – the only people who roar with laughter during her performances are the audience. It is the only event for which tickets are required. (Tickets go on sale on July 15) The most beautiful circus in town starts in the public squares on Friday, September 6, from 6 pm. The last performance is on Sunday, September 8, at 6.30 pm. Globally acclaimed stars of the street circus will alternate between eight venues: in addition to the stage in the Thon Dittmer Palais, these are Neupfarrplatz and Haidplatz, with two venues each, Kohlenmarkt, Rathausplatz and Fechthof. Viewers put together their own program – using the schedule in the program booklet or the Kulturpflaster app. If you miss a performance, you still have a second chance: each show is repeated several times. There is a lot to see in the Altstadt-Manege: there are artist companies that balance over construction fences while waiting for an imaginary train (Cie Lombric Spaghetti) or start making music at a fictitious border and turn the barrier into gymnastics equipment (Compagnie Sur Mesure). There are congenial duos: two curly heads who look like twin brothers and juggle in sync as if they were a single, four-armed artist (Cie les Invendus); the couple who are literally connected by a red thread in their partner acrobatic performance (Company PilkoPilko); two grumpy clowns in a wooden box who break the monotony of the world with ukulele, tin cans and tactful humor (Cie Magik Fabrik). There are solo artists such as the tango-dancing hula-hoop magician Muruya or the improvisation grandmaster El Goma, who wrestles against himself, the circumstances and many an audience member in a ball pit. And a lonely loner called Compagnie Majordome, who talks to his balls on a stage that looks like a confined space and repeatedly stumbles over the wrinkles of life. The program is musically accompanied by two local bands, the rock’n’roll combo Diamond Dogs and the experimental brass band Anarchist Brass Collective, as well as the two blonde toupeed Italians from Wunder Tandem, who reinterpret world hits and one-hit wonders in a quirky way. At the end of each show, the artists twirl their hats and, often in creative ways, draw attention to the fact that what they are doing is their profession. Because even if a lot of it seems playful and the clowns are by no means the only ones making nonsense: Almost everyone who performs at the Kulturpflaster earns their money from street circus. They are professionals – no one who sees them this weekend will doubt that.

You can find the complete program here: www.kulturpflaster.org The Kulturpflaster does not charge admission. Instead, there is “hat money”, so after each show you decide for yourself how much money you would like to give to the artists in the hat.

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