On Thursday 31st January sensational showmakers Cirque Bijou beat six other shortlisted contenders from across the UK to win ‘Best Visual Spectacular’ at the Festival Supplier Awards 2019.
The company, who are marking their 20th anniversary this year, entered two of their shows of 2018 in a bid to win the award. Both shows saw circus artists and musicians perform alongside hundreds of community participants to a collective audience of over 30,000.
The first show Cirque Bijou entered was Portolan, an unparalleled and never before attempted high wire show commissioned by Sunderland Culture. This theatrically driven performance, which took 6 months to make, was created in collaboration with world-class wire walkers Chris Bullzini and Johanne Humblet.
Through several site visits, and remotely from their offices in Bristol, they worked closely with Sunderland Culture Team, the City Council, and their Production team, led by Mike Richmond of Richmond Events Management.
The biggest challenge was the schedule: the company had just two days within which to rig the wire, and it’s 40 supporting wires, across the river whilst the river remaining navigable throughout.
It was important to Cirque Bijou, and the client, that the show was more than just simple spectacle. To infuse it with a simple narrative musician Heg Brignall (Heg and the Wolf Chorus) was commissioned to create new music for a live choir and band.
The 60 strong local choir were joined by 40 local community dancers who learned a specially choreographed dance with LED umbrellas to frame the show on the river banks and Sunderland Yacht Club provided a flotilla of 12 boats on the river itself.
As the wire walkers traversed the 200m long wire from the banks of the river to the Wearmouth Bridge the audience were in awe. As they reached their final destination a 40m long pyrotechnic cascading waterfall fell from the bridge.
What made this performance so remarkable was the legacy it left with the 20,000 audience, 100 participants, local authorities and communities understanding that they had collectively witnessed history being made in their city. So innovative was it that it was featured in BBC Four’s documentary Daredevils and Divas: A Night at the Circus in December 2018, a programme celebrating 250 years of modern circus.
The second show which helped clinch the award was a fire wire finale spectacular for Bestival 2018. This show saw Cirque Bijou collaborate once again with Chris Bullzini and Johanne Humblet alongside fire wire expert Jade Kindar-Martin and Hollywood stuntwoman Karine Mauffrey to create a highly theatrical and awe-inspiring show above the heads of festival goers.
Supported by stunning vocals from the London Contemporary Voices Choir and a haunting score from violinist Diana Yukawa this enthralling finale played out across two parallel wires rigged 11 meters in the air. For the pièce de résistance the lower wire was ignited with flame and Jade Kindar-Martin performed his unique and astounding Fire Wire act, walking and cycling a bike across the burning wire leaving the crowds mesmerised before the finale firework display.
The 16 judges from Festival Supplier Awards panel said: “Judges were blown away by Cirque Bijou’s impressive production values and performances which included choreography, lighting shows, pyrotechnics, music and a circus show.”
Cirque Bijou Director Billy Alwen said: “It’s fantastic to receive this award from industry colleagues in our 20th year. The whole team at Cirque Bijou constantly strive to make the very best shows that we can with a brilliant group of artistic collaborators. Our narratively driven performances include a mixture of world class performers and community participants which takes our work beyond simple visual spectacle to a shared visceral experience for those watching and participating.”
Helen Green from Head of Performance at Sunderland Culture said: ‘Portolan was simply beautiful. All the separate elements came together in what was pure magic. The overwhelming public response and media coverage has been a game changer for Sunderland and we sense a very definite mood change for the positive. We love working with Cirque Bijou, what are an incredible group of people they are.’
Bestival Creative Producer Cara Kane commented: “The Cirque Bijou Bestival 2018 Finale was the most challenging spectacle we’d ever created in our 15 years of Bestival. Flying 11 metres in the air above the festival arena and lasting 40 minutes long including choreography, lighting shows, pyro, circus, music, we knew it was going to be an incredible performance. On Sunday night after our headliners had performed, thousands of us watched in awe as Cirque Bijou walked the Wire on Fire. The Bestival audience has never been so still, silent and emotional.”