National Circus Festival of Ireland comes of age in Tralee next month

HUGELY POPULAR CIRCUS FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ITS 18TH YEAR IN EXISTENCE FROM NOVEMBER 14TH TO 17TH

CON Horgan, an organiser extraordinaire of the 2019 National Circus Festival of Ireland was pleasantly surprised last Friday morning when I informed him that the festival is this year celebrating its 18th birthday.

“It’s an adult!” he exclaims with a laugh as he sits down in The Kerryman offices to discuss the festival which will this year be taking place over four days from November 14 to November 17.

Keeping anything running for nigh on two decades is no mean feat, even more so a festival, so Con and the brilliant team of organisers behind him deserve some great credit for maintaining what is a hugely popular festival in Tralee every year.

When asked last Friday about why he thinks they have been able to keep going for so long, he attributes the success to two things - the high quality of acts they bring in every year and more importantly, the fantastic support that they get from the people and businesses of Tralee each and every year.

“The first thing that would strike me is that we always went for quality. We always booked top quality shows and top quality performers and people respond to that. Whether they know circus or not, they know quality when they see it,” said Con.

“The second thing is that we’ve had a lot of support from the town over the years and that’s one thing that I noticed, people just gave to the festival. They were quick to offer things to the festival so I suppose it’s always had this support from the town which is great to see,” he said.

As for this years festival, Con says that there are some very special things in store over the four days.

“Everything is special!” he laughed

“We have two parades on the Friday and Sunday and as we’ve been working with the Knocknagoshel Halloween Festival on a ‘fire breathing dragon’ which they used on this years ghost trail, we’ll be seeing that in our parades as well,” he continued.

“We have acts from all over the planet coming in. I travel a lot with my acts and so I get to see the best of stuff and because of this I can bring the best acts here to Tralee for the circus festival. We will have Argentinians, Italians, Brazilians, Dutch, Belgians, Spaniards, Catalonians, Belfast, Cork. We have the whole spectrum,” he laughed.

The 2019 programme offers up a wide variety of acts, workshops and shows to enjoy. Some of what will be on offer over the four days include:

- Childrens Circus Workshop (Saturday November 16 from 12pm to 1pm in KDYS, Denny Street)

- Circus Siamsa - early shows from 2pm to 4pm and late shows from 5:30pm to 7:30pn (Saturday November 16)

- Festival Parade & Post - Parade show from Moyderwell Hall to Tralee Square (Sunday November 17 from 3pm).

“The kids Circus Workshop is always a fun one, if kids want to run away to the circus for the day, they can do that there,” he said.

Finishing up, Con said that he always feel like the festival is well placed in the calendar

“We’ve had a lot of support from the town over the years. People just gave to the festival. They were quick to offer things to the festival so it’s always had this support, which is great to see.

tear as it’s in that strange period between Halloween and Christmas when people might be getting a bit down from the dark, winter nights.

“We help to bring the light!” he laughed.

As always, Con said that he and the rest of the festival organisers are always eternally grateful for the support they get from the town, people coming out and buying tickets.

Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, this will certainly not be a dull affair - roll on November 14!