Festivals and venues

  • Cirko - Uuden sirkuksen keskus. © Jouni Ihalainen

Contemporary circus venues in Finland are mainly located in the capital area, e.g. the City of Helsinki’s cultural centres and theatres. Cirko – Center for New Circus has organised year-round performances in Helsinki since its opening in spring 2011. Outside the capital area contemporary circus can be seen especially in larger cities such as Turku, Tampere, Oulu and Joensuu. New venues have also sprung up in the north of the country, e.g. in Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle.

There are many annual professional circus festivals in Finland focusing on contemporary circus, as well as some other festivals that include circus or street arts in their programme.

The oldest contemporary circus festivals in Finland include Object Festival (named “5–3–1 Festival of New Juggling” during 1998–2018) and Circus Ruska Festival in Tampere (since 2005). Cirko – Center for New Circus organised Cirko Festival in Helsinki during 2006–2018 and Sirkus Supiainen organised Finnish Diabolo Convention in Eräjärvi during 2006–2018. In recent years many local circus events were born around the country.