Roll up! Roll up! … On the occasion of the second International Circus Festival, more than 25 groups of artists and performers from all four corners of the globe drew travellers and visitors to Düsseldorf International into a magical world of circus and varieté. As part of one of the monthly Airlebnis Sundays, some 10,000 visitors came, saw and were pretty amazed at the transformation of the biggest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia s into a large circus arena.
Any examples? Well, Kilian Caso from France launched himself into a somersault and then landed back again with unerring precision on the wire - there are very few artists in the world who can go from the standing position and back again as he can. Richard Jecsman and Yana Semilet, on the other hand, remained on terra firma and fused into a classical statue in the middle of the departures level: for many years this Canadian-Hungarian acrobatic duo has been a highlight at the world-famous “Cirque du Soleil”.
But, despite all the differences in the individual artists and their acts, they all had one thing in common: they were all outstanding in the consistently high level of performance. Nonetheless, the top-class jury had to decide on just one winner: Lisa Rinne from Tilburg in the Netherlands won the votes of the expert panel of six jurors with her spectacular performance on the swinging trapeze. Sarah Trägner from Berlin on the slack wire came second, and Philippe and Elsa from Belgium with their Partner Acrobatics came third.
In addition, a number of prizes were awarded: Alexander Xelo (Diabolo) won the Engagement Prize with GOP Varieté; Lea Weber (vertical rope) won the Engagement Prize with Bochum’s Et Cetera Varieté; and Soulful Vibes (dance/break dance) won the Special Airport Arcades Prize for yet another appearance in an event at Düsseldorf airport.
