About CirkusMania

Do-it-yourself circus, stand-up circus, slow circus, and telepathic hybrid circus. The 7th edition of CirkusMania presents 14 new works reflecting the Swedish circus scene – right here, right now.

This year’s CirkusMania is a living panorama that shines a spotlight on the Swedish circus scene of today. The program includes world premieres as well as daring experiments that push the boundaries of tradition. The festival aims to particularly highlight the independent field, where innovative artists are shaping the circus of tomorrow. In a time that is challenging in many ways, we need new perspectives, fresh ideas, and hope – qualities that permeate every performance in this year’s festival. Running through the program is a thread of belief in human creative power and the capacity for change.

CirkusMania is a festival focused on circus as contemporary performing art. Through genre-crossing performances that incorporate elements of performance art, installation, or audience participation, the festival features both renowned companies and the next generation of circus artists. All circus artists in this year’s program are either based or educated in Sweden. We present works that premiered within the past year – some very recently, and a few that haven’t even had their premiere yet.

Today, circus encompasses both traditional and contemporary expressions. Traditional circus disciplines are intertwined with other art forms into artistic, existential or culture-critical explorations. It is a multifaceted art form that continues to evolve and push boundaries. Perhaps you will be both surprised and challenged in your ideas of what a circus performance can be.

CirkusMania is presented in collaboration with 12 venues across the Stockholm region. Together, we aim to foster interest in and dialogue about the art form. Through the professional days event, the festival also serves as a platform for Swedish and Nordic artists.

How CirkusMania was created
The festival was founded in 2019 by Subtopia. Subtopia is a production cluster for arts in Botkyrka, a municipality whose investments in circus throughout the 2000s and 2010s made the Stockholm region internationally known as one of the world’s most dynamic circus hubs. Stockholm University of the Arts offered renowned professional training, and here existed a large community of circus artists ready to engage with audiences. However, the main scene was abroad. Locally, the broad audiences were not familiar with the artists and current expressions of the art form. It was high time to create a context where the Stockholm audience could discover contemporary forms of circus and the artists who live and train here, with the entire world as their workplace.

Inspired by the proactivity of the artist community, we at Subtopia decided to create a festival. To succeed, a collective effort was needed, and we approached venues around the region with the idea. The response was exceptional, and today CirkusMania is a geographically dispersed initiative, held each year in collaboration with different venues.Through hard work, a passion for circus, and by being close to the performers, CirkusMania has become an important platform that contributes to the visibility and accessability of the art form, regionally and nationally.

CirkusMania is coordinated by

with the support of