20 years of Letní Letná will be celebrated by the best foreign stars from the festival's history

20 years of Letní Letná will be celebrated by the best foreign stars from the festival's history

The Letní Letná Festival is celebrating 20 years and this year's programme has therefore selected the best of the new circus that has been capturing the audiences' hearts for two decades. The 20th-anniversary edition will see the return of the international stars of the new circus who have thrilled the festival audience the most. British circus icon NoFit State will make its presence known with the unmissable and wild SABOTAGE. The sibling duo from the French-Belgian troupe Collectif Malunés, in collaboration with the ensemble MOVEDBYMATTER, will perform a fratricidal show in BITBYBIT. France's Cirque Aïtal will unpack A CIEL OUVERT - under the starry sky - a bohemian camping trip that is an entry into a whole other world. Canada's Cirque Alfonse turns life on a farm upside down in the comically lively ANIMAL. World-class acrobatics that can tell a story and evoke emotions will be on show at Letná Letná from 17 August to the 3rd of September.

The Letní Letná festival is now synonymous with the best of the new circus. For nineteen years, the end of summer at Letná has been a guarantee of unforgettable experiences for spectators and an opportunity for inspiration and comparison for artists. A wide range of this demanding but beautiful art has been presented to the domestic audience by almost forty foreign companies, including world top performers. Moreover, Letní Letná is perceived as a festival of the Czech new circus, which has its permanent place under the chapitó and in the open air.

"The Letní Letná festival was first held in 2004 and over the past nineteen years it has become an integral part of not only the Czech but also the European cultural map - it has become an event that has no parallel in the Czech Republic. The appeal of the festival is constantly growing. In the first year, 60 performances and concerts were attended by 6,300 spectators, and the twentieth edition will welcome 600,000 visitors," says Jiří Turek, the festival's director, looking back on the past years.

The international programme of the jubilee edition returns to the best of the best. Visitors will see new performances by world-class new circus companies. This time, the French-Belgian Collectif Malunés has multiplied the joy of new circus by teaming up with performer Kaspar Vandenbergh from the ensemble MOVEDBYMATTER, who takes over the direction. The performance of BITBYBIT literally stands and falls with brothers Simon and Vincent Bruyninckx, whose attempt at bonding the audience watches in a nerve-wracking show. They balance between falling and connecting, suspended only by their teeth, connected by a rope like an umbilical cord. An experiment in dangerous circus technique only heightens the confrontation that simultaneously brings the two brothers closer together. The challenging performance was preceded by a year of artistic research and physical training.

The differences, and what brings us together, are also explored in the energetic production SABOTAGE, with which the ensemble NoFit State breaks with the usual clichés and completely breaks out of the usual audience experience. The UK's leading new circus company with roots in the travelling community combines new circus skills with live music, dance, set design, text and film. Sabotage's boldly wild show is disrupted by darker and grittier elements, just as the saboteurs stand out and challenge the establishment. As a result, British circus performers explore the different personal journeys that led them to the same tent.

Cirque Aïtal from the home of the new circus - France - will give audiences a taste of what it is like to be driven by the wind, illuminated by the stars and to dance, sing and jump. A CIEL OUVERT takes the open-hearted to a bohemian campground where traditional circus meets the new, poetry meets music, and acrobatic acts meet clown acts. Under a makeshift shelter, all visitors will be welcomed with hospitality by Victor Cathala and Kati Pikkarainen, performers who can rise above their physical perfection and look at the world around them with insight and humour.

Humour is certainly not lacking in the Canadian Cirque Alfonse when it plays out a "farm fantasy" in which the chickens have teeth, the ducks are a bit spooky and the farm is upside down. The ANIMAL production promises a slightly surreal mix of acrobatics, singing, dancing and theatre. The Canadian bearded men juxtapose the clichés of rural life and bring to life stories from their childhood, all driven by a driving "farm funk" without compromising their acrobatic virtuosity one bit.

Letní Letná will enter its twentieth year with a unique tribute to the new circus. Audiences will have the opportunity to experience the opening show only twice - on the opening night on 16 August and in a single repeat performance a day later. The show is free each time.

Tickets for the "crème de la crème", which the jubilee edition of Letní Letná has selected from among foreign stars, are already on sale at letniletna.cz. The only show of its kind and scale in the Czech Republic and surrounding countries until the 3rd of September, in addition to evening performances by the world and Czech new circus leaders, also invites you to an accompanying programme including workshops and open-air events. Children and teenagers will learn circus disciplines at the popular camp Letní Letňák.