Double the circus fun as Devizes Street Festival has day added (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Double the circus fun as Devizes Street Festival has day added

4:00pm Saturday 11th August 2012 in Local

As Devizes Carnival celebrates its centenary, the popular international street festival connected with it is being spread over two days.

The festival, which normally takes place on August bank holiday Monday, will this year be running on both the Sunday and Monday, August 26 and 27, with the Sunday given over to circus entertainment on The Green.

Dave Buxton, the carnival’s artistic director, said: “There has been a growth in the number of circus schools and as a result there are lots of small circus companies springing up all over the place.

“These are trained in traditional circus skills but some of them are quite anarchic and we have invited some of them to take part in this special occasion to celebrate 100 years of carnival in Devizes.”

Lost in Translation Circus – which is based in the UK but performs mostly on the continent – will perform its version of the classic story of Cyrano de Bergerac at 6pm. At 8pm, Square Peg Circus, who are based at the Roundhouse in London, will present Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a circus.

Kawa Circus from India, where they travel from village to village in the traditional manner, will also perform their acts on Sunday.

Monday sees the normal street festival take place in the centre of the town, but this time the events will be more spread out.

Mr Buxton said: “We have had complaints in previous years that the Market Place is so crowded that many people can’t see the performers. “So this year we are closing off Maryport Street.

“The Bash Street Theatre, who performed at twinning weekend last year, will perform outside the town hall.”

Others performing on the Monday include Vieux Farka Toure from Mali, described as the Jimi Hendrix of the Sahara. There will also be 12-piece Ska band Ska Cubano while Pif-Paf Theatre will invite people to take a ride on their flying bike.

As if he didn’t have enough to do, Mr Buxton is publishing a book of photographs entitled 100 Years of Devizes Carnival with 250 photographs of the carnival from 1912 to the present. It will be out in time for the first carnival event, Picnic in the Park, on August 19, price £14.