Come join us and experience something you never imagined possible at the Southern Sweden Circus Festival launch celebrations. Witness bold and beautiful work by some of the greatest circus artists and companies in Europe playing over 4 days across Malmö and Lund as we give you a taste of what to expect next year.
The full festival will be happening in 2024, but we just couldn’t wait until then to share our excitement about circus. We want to welcome as many people as possible so many events are free to attend, check out the programme for full details.
Whether you’ve never seen circus or you want to see how circus has changed since the big top shows of your childhood, there is something for everyone. The Southern Sweden Circus Festival presented by Cirkus Syd in partnership with Malmö and Lund cities, is your chance to explore everything that classical and contemporary circus has to offer.
On this page you can read about all the ways that different people currently can engage with the festival behind the scenes.
We hope to hear from you!
Background of SSCF
Where does the idea come from?
In the spring of 2022, Cirkus Syd did a feasibility study on new circus festival. The entire field was consulted locally, in the region, nationally and internationally and approx 70 cultural operators participated, including authorities, individual artists and companies.
The feasibility study showed that the need is great for a strong meeting place where the industry and the public can meet and develop. That the festival should program circus and neighboring art, as well as being regionally anchored in Skåne to include more gaming venues both in town and in rural areas as well as making the circus available to one wider and new audience.
The preliminary study showed that there is ambition, will and passion to create a festival that can act as a catalyst for a bigger and broader one development of the circus arts, partly in Malmö and Lund and on a regional level. Among another because there are many circus performances created in Sweden that are not played in Sweden due to lack of places to play and contexts to participate in. Many circus performers express the desire to live and work in Skåne, but the professional infrastructure that would enable a settlement is too weak for that to happen today be a reality.
The city of Malmö and the municipality of Lund have stated that they want to be leaders
collaborators in the creation and development towards a biennial circus festival with
first festival in 2024, then in 2026, 2028, 2030, etc.
In 2023 the festival celebrates with a 4-day launch. During the launch we will practise whilst meeting audiences to learn in real time about how this complex partnership will work in real terms. The work done in 2023 is all about learning and developing a sustainable and strategic foundation for the festival's continued life and growth into a Skåne-wide festival.
The first real festival will happen in and around week 36 of 2024 and will include Malmö city, Lund city and we hope that more municipalities will join the partnership consortia. See below on ways to get involved.
Get Involved
The fundamental idea of SSCF is collaboration. Depending on what type of organisation you represent there are different ways to collaborate with SSCF. The model for cooperation is in development during 2023 as part of setting up the festival and is not set in stone, but acts as a pilot to be developed over the next year.
Below is a description of ways that we propose to collaborate currently:
Municipalities in Skåne
If you work for a municipality in Skåne you can become a partner of the festival. Being a partner means you are part of a consortia or partnership of municipalities who in some way want to connect to the project and are intrested in developing public presentation, residency, workshops, masterclasses or similar types of circus activities. If you are intrested to join the consortia or would like to have a chat about it please contact Director Lina B. Frank lina@cirkussyd.com
Stages, festivals or organisations
If you work somewhere that either has a public programme or you create content for public presentation, but you are not a circus organisation yourself we'd love to collaborate with you.
We can co-present circus performances, residencies, workshops or other types of activities. If you are intrested we can also develop projects together using the festival as a platform for activities.
If you are intrested to join as a partner organisation or would like to have a chat about it please contact Director Lina B. Frank lina@cirkussyd.com
Circus artists and artistic circus companies
The festivals mission is to make more circus experiences happen in Skåne. Therefore we see the festival as a platform for developing projects and new work. The festival also has a mission to support development of infrastructure across the region of Skåne. As such we are intrested to hear from artists based in Skåne about what is missing that the festival could support to make happen and about new projects that you would like to develop together with us. We are interested in both spontaneous smaller ideas that can easily come alive and longer term projects spanning several years which connect to communities and places.
Throughout the summer of 2023 (june-aug) we are running a series of info-sessions for artists where we talk about the behind the scenes of how the festival is developing and where you can ask any questions you have. It's also an informal space for discussion about how you as an artist or artistic company thing the festival could benefit you. Please also let us know about any of your work so we can try to present it as part of the festival programme. If you want to come to an info-session keep an eye on the event regitration page and newletter for dates to sign up and please contact Director Lina B. Frank lina@cirkussyd.com.
Libraries, hubs, community spaces, local businesses etc
If you work at a hub like a library, youth centre or a space where citizens and members of the community informally gather you can partner with the festival via our project Cirkusveckan. In fact anyone who wants can be part of Cirkusveckan to organise your own circus activities in your space.
We have both material as support for you to organise your own activities and we have workshops you book for free and for subsidised price.
Riksteaterföreningar i Skåne
As a Riksteaterförening based in Skåne we invite you to collaborate with us via Riksteatern Skåne. During the kick-off 2023 you are invited to watch Wes Peden's Rollercoaster at Stenkrossen free of charge the Friday 8th of September at 17:00 - 18:00.
Please RSVP via this link latest 28th of August if you would like to come.
Support the festival
The fundamental idea of SSCF is collaboration. Depending on what type of organisation you represent there are different ways to collaborate with SSCF. The model for cooperation is in development during 2023 as part of setting up the festival and is not set in stone, but acts as a pilot to be developed over the next year.
Below is a description of ways that we propose to collaborate currently:
Donations
The festival accepts donations large and small. During the kick-off you'll be able to donate via Swish on site and it's possible to donate via bank transfer Bank Giro 5431-8779 - mark transaction DonationSSCF. If you have the payment service Swish you can donate an amount of your choice by using the QR code below.
We are more than happy to partner with busniesses whom we can provide visibility for through our programme or more inventive ways. If you are intrested in donating to the festival or would like to talk about a possible partnership please contact Director Lina B. Frank lina@cirkussyd.com
Volunteering
The festival has a team of volunteers during the delivery week. This should be a fun experience with limited responsibility. If you volunteer with SSCF you'll be part of a wonderful group of people making a circus festival happen and that in itself is quite something!
If you are intrested to join volunteer during the festival or would like to have a chat about it please contact Hedda@cirkussyd.com
Events which require invitation
Sat, 09 SeptRådhuset, Malmö09 Sept 2023, 17:00 – 19:30 CESTRådhuset, Malmö, Kompanigatan 5, 211 35 Malmö, Sweden
Fri, 08 SeptStadshallen Lund08 Sept 2023, 19:00 – 21:00 CESTStadshallen Lund, Stortorget 9, 222 23 Lund, Sweden
Fri, 08 SeptStenkrossen, Lund08 Sept 2023, 17:00 – 18:00 CESTStenkrossen, Lund, Kastanjegatan 13, 223 57 Lund, Sweden
Photo Credit
Agnes Eeg-Olofson Megin Zondervan
Lily Schlinker
Southern Sweden Circus Festival is produced by Cirkus Syd in partnership with the cities of Malmö & Lund. In collaboration with Riksteatern Skåne & Cirkus Brazil Jack.
