Jango Edwards' gift to Barcelona
Five theatres and several venues in the city will offer free clown and circus shows with clowns from all over the world.
On 4 September, the third edition of the Festival of Fools Barcelona 2022 was inaugurated on Barceloneta beach, with the participation of Leo Bassi. The American clown, actor and comic Jango Edwards has announced that he is suffering from terminal cancer and leaving the Festival of Fools as an artistic legacy and a gift to Barcelona.
The first edition was celebrated in 1975 in Amsterdam. It was in that first competition that the Nouveau Clown movement, in which clowns showed their most provocative and social side, was born. Many of those who today are part of the line-up of the Festival of Fools Barcelona 2022 and the international network that organises it, such as Jango Edwards, Nora Rae, Johnny Melville and Tortell Poltrona, were already taking part.
On 20 and 27 September, for example, La Gleva Teatre will host two evenings - entitled Up close and personal - with Nora Rae and Tortell Poltrona, respectively.
Until 2 October, the festival will offer more than twenty circus shows in five theatres in the city at popular prices, always at 8 p.m. On 16 September, Austrian Tanja Simma, better known as Anna de Lirium, will present ALIVE! In concert at Lluïsos de Gràcia and, on 17 and 18, Mime your own business will be performed by Cabaret Cabrón, formed by the already mentioned Rae, Poltrona and De Lirium, as well as Diana Gadish, Knut Østrådal and Grada Peskens.
On the 23, The Fools Brothers will display their circus, theatre and magic skills in Magical Mystery Detour, in Lluïsos d'Horta, and on the 24 and 25 Cabaret Cabrón will be performing the dance floor show Coco Loconuts Club.
On the 30, the young and disbelieving Guillem Albà and The All In Orchestra will stage Marabunta at the Foment Hortenc. And on 1 and 2 October, the International Gala of the Circ du Ole will take place, featuring Pepa Plana, Peter Ercolano, Tony Heimer and Big Stick Orchestra and NCI Artists and the previously mentioned Grada Peskens, Johnny Melville and Knut Østrådal.
The festival also includes free activities, such as the Fools Militia anti-military parades (on 15 September starting at Lluïsos de Gràcia, on 22 September at Lluïsos d'Horta and on 28 September at Foment Hortenc, always at 4 p.m.), the presentation of the book Amsterdam's Compleat Fools and the Festival of Folms Pel·lis per a ximples at the Drassanes Civic Centre. The best from the suitcase of Russian clowns, by Slava Polunin, and several funny clips will be shown on the 19. And on the 26, The never ending Jango, by Robert Nortick, and the short film Clowns in prison, by Peter Ercolano, will be screened.
You can buy the tickets for the paid events at this link.