The 8th China Wuqiao International Circus Festival (CWICF) is to be held from October 27 to November 4, in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei Province.

The festival, with the theme of Friendship, Exchange, Flourishing and Development, is scheduled to attract more than 200 acrobatic artists and 60 magicians from across the world.

The gala, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the Hebei provincial government, will include acrobatic and magic performances and competitions, the second World Circus Forum, and a local folk arts show.

A total of 26 acrobatic programs will be staged, 19 performed by overseas artists and seven by domestic artists.

The jury committee will be composed of 15 experts, among whom 11 are from abroad, including Maxim Nukulin, president of the Russia Nukulin Circus Troupe and Peter Reveen, a world famous acrobatic artist.

Bian Faji, chairman of the CWICF Jury Committee and vice-chairman of the China Acrobatic Artists Association, said that in order to enrich and expand the content and scale of the CWICF, the organizing committee will, for the first time, invite 12 world renowned magicians to take part in specific competitive performance, among which the U.S. Bubbles Magic will make its worldwide debut in China.

Bian said that the acrobatic programs, as the world's most innovated ones in recent years, are much developed in terms of acrobatic skills, the degree of difficulties and the level of enjoyment.

Some programs use hi-tech materials and some have made breakthroughs in the level of speed, the degree of height and precision, which will give full play to the 21st century's acrobatics that are "new, strange, dangerous, beautiful and interesting."

The World Circus Forum, with the theme of Prospects for the World Circus in the 21st Century, will have celebrities, experts and scholars to exchange views on new theories and future development.

The organizing committee will also arrange activities, including exhibitions of local folk art products such as leather silhouettes and scissors cuttings, and performances like Beijing opera and Hebei clappers opera.

Participants will be invited to pay a visit to Wuqiao, known as the hometown of China's acrobatics in Hebei.

Since 1987, the biennial event has attracted more than 200 acrobatic groups from over 30 countries and regions. The festival has won the title of the Great Acrobatic Circus in the Orient.

(People's Daily.com 10/11/2001)