By Ewelina Lepionko
As every year, at the end of July, street artists and masters of circus art from all over the world came to Lublin, Poland to present magical, breathtaking performances and shows.
Carnaval Sztukmistrzów is the biggest festival of new circus and busking in Poland. At this festival, the audience can interact directly with this street and circus art. Carnaval is an extraordinary time when the city is visited by the largest number of guests. In a friendly atmosphere, the inhabitants of the city celebrate with tourists a feast of art that touches and entertains.
Circus returns to familiar spaces in Lublin. All events take place in Lublin’s streets and squares as well as inside circus tents. Litewski Square, Old Town, and Błonia near the Castle will become the venues of many theatres, circus, acrobatic, and busker performances. Litewski Square will feature aerial acrobatics and two stages for busker performances. The Old Town will become home to Polish buskers and the festival’s music stage. Błonia near the Castle will fill up with attractions for kids, food trucks, the festival club, and a large tent for unique circus shows.
Like every year, highliners taking part in Urban Highline Festival. The highliners who walk above the heads of Carnaval’s attendees, come to Lublin from over 50 countries in the world. After 10 years of the festival, Lublin has become a mecca for slackliners and highliners, mostly owing to the innovative idea of hanging lines in the city center.
The tents explode with the power of new circus performances. They show a world in which art becomes one and in which barriers and divisions into theatre, juggling, dance, or music cease to exist. The streets cower in fear. All this is caused by buskers and their entourage. It is always funny and scary, a little sentimental at heart but in the mind – a little uncomfortable.
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As the organizers of the event say the essence of Carnaval is FUN. Fun has always been accompanied by ludic art. Through its new forms – new circus and busking we will begin a time of shared celebration.
Carnaval is a time when everyday laws are suspended and the entire customary social and cultural order is turned upside down. Just as a juggler (or artist) is synonymous with a misfit, a freak, and an outcast, so is Carnaval synonymous with a time of celebration, abolishment of laws, duties, and norms.
Carnaval is a time of destruction, chaos, death but also restoration, revival, birth; it is a time of fools, artists, and jugglers who announce the coming of new life. Carnaval is the celebration of life itself. It is the essence of life, its most vital sign.
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While the pandemic has significantly affected public spaces and changed our world, it will not change this Carnaval. Of course, the festival is in compliance with all pandemic restrictions.
Carnaval Sztukmistrzów is a festival of the art of the new circus and theater that has been taking place since 2008 in the city space of Lublin.
The assumption of the festival, which in 2008 was called the Festival of Magicians, is its ludic character and an attempt to present contemporary juggling and circus performances from the circle of the new circus. The event includes theatrical performances, circus street performances engaging the audience, busker performances enlivening the city space, and performances, installations, and concerts of street bands. Since 2010, Carnaval Sztukmistrzów has been a development of the Sztukmistrzów Festival. The name of the event refers to the figure of the Magician of Lublin, the hero of the book by the Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer.
