American CircusFest
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All photos © Christopher Baudo
American CircusFest 2024 Jury Members
All photos © Christopher Baudo
American CircusFest 2024 Performance Artists
All photos © Christopher Baudo
American CircusFest 2023
For the first time in the annals of American Circus history, an international Circus festival under a Big Top will be presented in the United States. The Lone Star Circus is mounting the second American Circus Fest in Dallas, Texas, from April 1 to 2, 2023.
American CircusFest is produced in partnership with Circus Vazquez, which will offer its state-of-the-art big top tent—the finest and largest travelling circus tent in the country—to host the festival.
Created in Dallas in 2022, American CircusFest is a competition for emerging American circus talents. Like the 1st edition, this 2nd edition of the festival will start on April 1, 2023, with Beginner and Junior award categories. The Professional Circus international award will be held on April 2, 2023, in the style of classic European festivals, and will include the participation of 13 artists from 6 countries (US, Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy, Ukraine), judged by a panel of international circus specialists that will include Odette Bouglione (France), president of Paris’s legendary Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus; Circus Vazquez; Charlie Burrows, casting advisor for Cirque du Soleil; Fabio Montico (Italy), director of the International Circus Festival of Italy Latina; and Gary Walker, director of special events and entertainment for the Gaylord Texan Resort. Ringmaster Kevin Venardos will host the Professional competition.
“We are very proud and excited about this project,” says Fanny Kerwich, founder of Lone Star Circus, the non-profit Dallas-based company that, in the last two decades, has generated educational circus projects in the community and countless international world-class, spectacular circus productions. As an eighth-generation member of an old French circus family, Kerwich has performed everywhere in her former artistic career from the Parisian Moulin-Rougeto Feld Entertainment’s Barnum’s Kaleidoscope.
“We realized the US deserves a circus festival in the class of such festivals existing in France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Monaco,” Kerwich says. “We acknowledge that a circus tradition still exists worldwide, with acts not only produced in circus schools but also within centuries-old circus families. It’s this great legacy we wish to celebrate, creating in America an opportunity for meeting and sharing the great culture of the circus. We are deeply grateful to the Vazquez circus family, for trusting and enthusiastically supporting this exciting opportunity for circus performers from around the world”.
American CircusFest is produced in partnership with Circus Vazquez, which will offer its state-of-the-art big top tent—the finest and largest travelling circus tent in the country—to host the festival.
Created in Dallas in 2022, American CircusFest is a competition for emerging American circus talents. Like the 1st edition, this 2nd edition of the festival will start on April 1, 2023, with Beginner and Junior award categories. The Professional Circus international award will be held on April 2, 2023, in the style of classic European festivals, and will include the participation of 13 artists from 6 countries (US, Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy, Ukraine), judged by a panel of international circus specialists that will include Odette Bouglione (France), president of Paris’s legendary Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus; Circus Vazquez; Charlie Burrows, casting advisor for Cirque du Soleil; Fabio Montico (Italy), director of the International Circus Festival of Italy Latina; and Gary Walker, director of special events and entertainment for the Gaylord Texan Resort. Ringmaster Kevin Venardos will host the Professional competition.
“We are very proud and excited about this project,” says Fanny Kerwich, founder of Lone Star Circus, the non-profit Dallas-based company that, in the last two decades, has generated educational circus projects in the community and countless international world-class, spectacular circus productions. As an eighth-generation member of an old French circus family, Kerwich has performed everywhere in her former artistic career from the Parisian Moulin-Rougeto Feld Entertainment’s Barnum’s Kaleidoscope.
“We realized the US deserves a circus festival in the class of such festivals existing in France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Monaco,” Kerwich says. “We acknowledge that a circus tradition still exists worldwide, with acts not only produced in circus schools but also within centuries-old circus families. It’s this great legacy we wish to celebrate, creating in America an opportunity for meeting and sharing the great culture of the circus. We are deeply grateful to the Vazquez circus family, for trusting and enthusiastically supporting this exciting opportunity for circus performers from around the world”.
