Circus Ruska Festival <3 Arctic Ensemble
Festival pass

Circus Ruska Festival joins forces with the contemporary circus company Arctic Ensemble to bring a wide array of top contemporary circus artists from Finland and abroad to Tampere from August 7 to 9, 2025.

The event will take place in Arctic Ensemble’s circus tent at Pyynikintori in Tampere.

The program of Circus Ruska Festival ❤ Arctic Ensemble includes three full-length contemporary circus performances, an Artistic Seminar aimed at professionals, and the festival’s grand finale event, Arctic Ruska Evening.

All performances are open to all ages. A separate licensed seating area is available for each show.

The program of the festival:

Arctic Ensemble: ENSEMBLED (2h incl. intermission)

ENSEMBLED is the first performance in the group’s own tent. The work is an acrobatic and collaborative circus experience in which 9 acrobats and a jazz drummer transform a traditional circus tent into a contemporary circus playground.

The contrasts between the grit and glitter of circus life are present in the performance. In a participatory game show, the audience tries to knock down a young dancer using leaf blowers and throwing wool socks. On the other side of the scale, a terminally exhausted performer is dragged across a dusty stage in an almost funereal atmosphere.

The piece culminates in a seamless collaboration between the whole collective, with the performers flying wildly through the airspace of the tent. The collective’s speciality, the Korean double cradle, is unique even on a worldwide scale.

ENSEMBLED strives for a sense of community that seeps beyond the boundaries of the working group and makes the work more than just a performance. Ensembled is about the fragility and brutality of human life: how one’s own life can hang by a thread and trust in another is the only thing holding it together.

With the Circus Ruska Festival ❤ Arctic Ensemble festival pass you can attend the ENSEMBLED performance on Thursday, August 7^th at 18:00. Find information about other ENSEMBLED performance dates and times on the group’s website at arcticensemble.com.

Armour Circus Works: Stygian – Friday 8.8. at 19:00 (55 min)

Stygian is built on the 9-year collaborative practice of music and juggling research between Onni Toivonen and Konsta Leinonen. In the creation of Stygian we have focused on ambient soundscapes, deep rumblings of bass and how that translates into the material and pace of the juggling. We had the urge to create something that embodies the full emotional range of object manipulation. The name refers to river Styx, a mythical place between the afterworld and our world in Greek mythology. Stygian however, is not inspired by Greek gods, but rather the darkness and liminal nature of Styx.Artistic Seminar – la 9.8. klo 13 (n. 1,5h)

Stygian is a contemporary circus piece of disjointed virtuosity and intense, bass heavy soundscapes. It is an abstract psychological journey of dedication and obsession, of balance lost and found again.

Artistic Seminar – Saturday 9.8. at 13:00 (approx. 1,5h)

Jay Gilligan and Laura Tikka, circus artists with long, admirable, and widely international careers, will share insights into their careers in a keynote speech. The event is accessible with a festival pass only; individual tickets will not be sold.

Cirque Salmenaho: Hillasium – Saturday 9.8. at 16:00 (40 min)

Hillasium is contemporary circus piece commissioner by Art Organisation Silence, which premiered at the Silence Festival the 9th of June 2023. This series of compassionate has been supported by the Finnish Arts Promotion Centre.

Arctic Ruska Evening – Saturday 9.8. at 20 (2h incl. intermission)

Arctic Ruska Evening conclude the festival in a spectacular cabaret-style show inside the circus tent. The evening promises surprises, sparkle, and technical mastery.

A troupe of top circus artists takes the stage, presenting breathtaking aerial acrobatics, precise juggling, and impressive human pyramids that leave the audience holding their breath.

The atmosphere shifts from playful to intense as the skilled performers fill the tent with airy movement and physical expression. Arctic Ruska Evening is a night where the magic of the circus meets the August night — an unforgettable festival finale.

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Sales closes at 9.8.2025 23:59.