News

CircusDanceFestival is seeking original short pieces from the circus and dance field for a 360° audience on an outdoor stage. You have until 1rst December 2025 to submit your best solo or duo work, in the air or on the floor, lasting up to fifteen minutes.

Applications are welcome from both established and emerging artists, a late-career changer or a cross-disciplinary artist. Your work can be funny, smart, contemplative, queer, poetic, critical... like to your taste. However, you should consider the context of an open-air setting and that we search for works that are performed 360°!

Open Call

We look back on a wonderful festival weekend. Even the rain couldn't stop us. Three days full of contemporary circus, inspiring conversations, new perspectives and moving encounters. We are still full of all the moments we were able to experience together.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible!

If you want to reminisce a little, you can find a small photographic review.

You can also read a small VOICES special with an article about Julian Vogel and his work in our CDFthek.

We say goodbye to the summer break and wish you all a good time!

CircusDanceFestival 2025
June 6 - 8

Over Pentecost we celebrate again the diversity of forms of expression in contemporary circus, dance and performance and take an artistically resistant look at the challenges of the present. It will be poetic, thought-provoking, political and spectacular! Hope is not a state, but a practice – and so the festival celebrates the vitality of movement and artistic experimentation, focuses on the language of the body and creates space for encounters, contradiction and new perspectives.

Mélissa Guex brings a powerful performance to Cologne that reinterprets the collective “down” of our time. In “Ceramic Circus”, Julian Vogel attempts to make the impossible possible using circus techniques. In the daily changing open-air programme, international artists present their latest creations for the 360° stage, the Latibul Circus Garden opens its doors for families and the hand-picked film programme ranges from experimental to Arte-Cinema. At the European conference “Take Care”, we will focus on mental health and care, and the concert by the band “Crème Solaire” will be the latest call to dance in the early summer.
Welcome to the green Rhine floodplains at the CircusDanceFestival 2025!

To the programme
Festivalteaser

Support your CircusDanceFestival!

The CircusDanceFestival, one of the most progressive and diverse festivals for contemporary circus and dance in Germany, is facing financial challenges. Just before the program for its 6th edition is about to be announced, the CircusDanceFestival team feels compelled to go public with their current financial situation – and to reach out directly to their audience.

Read more

A European conference on mental health and well-being in the circus and performing arts sector

A European conference on mental health and well-being in the circus and performing arts sector: The CircusDanceFestival hosts the kick-off event of the first-ever Creative Europe project dedicated to mental health and well-being in the circus arts sector, Take Care. The conference focuses on mental health, covering topics from working conditions and health habits to queerness. In terms of exploring the relationship between the individual and the collective, the goal is to connect physical, psychological, and ethical aspects, while creating an intergenerational dialogue. Come and learn together with us!

All information

Cultivating and Building Ecologies of Resilient Collaboration in the Circus Arts

2nd of April 10 -12 h

Collaboration is at the heart of circus arts, yet the intensity of creative work and demanding conditions can lead to exhaustion and burnout. How can we build teams that foster resilience rather than drain energy? How do working conditions affect well-being in the sector? This online workshop, part of the Take Care initiative, explores how team dynamics shape mental health in the circus sector. Drawing on Nora Bateson’s concept of Warm Data and insights from Brené Brown’s Daring Leadership, we will examine how interconnectedness within teams can either support or undermine well-being.

With Heather O’Donnell

This training program is aimed at cultural institutions and cultural practitioners.

Register here

For our accommodation program, we are looking for people who are interested in hosting one of our artists during the festival.

You will get a very special insight into the festival's happenings and meet exciting people from all over Europe.

Additionally, you will receive two free tickets for a show of your choice and two free drinks.

All further information here.