That was the Winterfest 19

The Winterfest comes to an end with thunderous applause after six successful festival weeks. This year we welcomed circus companies from Canada, France, Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition to top-class circus art, around 31,500 visitors also enjoyed the Winterfest program consisting of concerts, workshops, literature matinees, film afternoons, audience talks, two exhibitions and a pop-up flea market.

“As new artistic director, I experienced a very exciting and successful Winterfest in the past 6 weeks. A mixture of sophisticated circus art and entertaining acrobatics made for top performances. The response from the audience showed once again that contemporary circus is booming. We were lucky enough to present the latest pieces from the best companies in the world. And now I’m traveling to meet new and interesting artists to invite to the next Winterfest in Salzburg. ”
(David Dimitri, Artistic Director)

The 19th edition of the Winterfest opened with the Canadian artists of Cirque Alfonse. The Canadians delighted the Winterfest audience with “Tabarnak”, a surreal, joyous celebration with daring acrobatics and self-composed folkloric-rock live music.

Cie Akoreacro enchanted their fans, who once again got their money’s worth after the performances in 2010 and 2014. The 11-people ensemble from France brought us “Dans ton cœur”, a spirited piece that with brilliant humor and creative ideas, that takes a mischievous look at the seemingly banal everyday life of a couple.

With “Only Bones v1.0”, Thom Monckton made jaws drop. In a minimalist setting, he bent his body, let the hands speak, kneaded his face like plasticine or let his head roll.

The Australian company Circa moved into the theater tent shortly after Christmas with »Circa’s Peepshow«. A glamorous mixture of circus, cabaret, burlesque and acrobatics, which carried the audience away into a mirror cabinet of fantasy and sensual, poetic images.

For the first time Winterfest hosted an event in collaboration with and at the ARGEkultur. On the ARGE-stage the Berlin collective still hungry showed »RAVEN«, an intelligent and humorous performance about being a mother as an artist. Circus experiments were again experienced in the young format Kaleidoscope in the Toihaus Theater.