International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo

The tradition & historical record

The International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo (French: Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo) is an annual circus that takes place every January. The festival was created in 1974 by Prince Rainier III of Monaco to recognize and promote circus performers at the pinnacle of their profession. It was initially held in Monte Carlo until the festival's permanent venue in Monaco's Fontvieille district, the Chapiteau de Fontvieille, was completed. During the festival, circus acts from around the world are performed for paying audiences and are presented to a jury of circus professionals, specialists and journalists. The jury gives awards for the best circus acts, including the Golden Clown (Clown d'or), Silver Clown (Clown d'argent) and Bronze Clown (Clown de bronze), in the form of statuettes. Special prizes are also awarded by various companies, organizations, institutions and individuals. The awards, called Palmarès, are presented during a closing gala performance attended by the Prince of Monaco and his family. The festival is presided over by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, who serves as the festival's president and oversees much of the planning of the competitions and gala shows. ¹

1974: Charlie Rivel, clown – Spain – Alfred Court, Animal training – France 1975: Alexis Grüss sénior, Cavalry – France 1976: Elvin Bale, Trapezoid – US 1977: La famille Knie, Cavalry – Switzerland 1978: La troupe Beljakovs, bear training – USSR and The Flying Gaonas – US (Tie) 1979: Leonid Kostiuk and his troop of nine pole vault – USSR – George Carl, clown – France 1980: La troupe Parvanovi, seesaw jumpers – Bulgaria 2007 [31]: La Famille Casartelli 2008 [32]: Les Frères Pellegrinis, Florian Richter, Li Wei 2009 [33]: Cirque Moranbong de Pyong Yang, Flight of Passion 2010 [34]: Martin Lacey Jr – Présentation de Fauves, Troupe de Shandong – Numéro d’Icariens 2011 [35]: Flavio Togni, Bello Nock 2012 [36]: Troupe acrobatique du Cirque de Shanghai pour les numéros de Cai Yong et de la bascule, Famille René Cassely 2013 [37]: La Troupe nationale acrobatique de Pékin pour ses deux numéros, Duo Shcherbak & Popov 2014 [38]: Desire of Flight, Troupe Sokolov 2015 [39]: Artistes de la Troupe nationale de Pyongyang (trapèze volant et pas de deux), Troupe nationale acrobatique de Chine, Anastasia Fedotova-Stykan et ses chevaux, Fumagalli et Daris 2016 [40]: Princess Stephanie 2017 [41]: Troupe Trushin, Sky Angels 2018 [42]: Troupe acrobatique de Shanghai (équilibristes), Merrylu et Jozsef Richter 2019 [43]: Martin Lacey Junior, Royal Circus de Gia Eradze 2020 [44]: The Cavalry from the Knie Circus, Martinez Brothers, Les Tuniziani 2023 [45]: Merrylu et René Jr. Casselly, Quincy Azzario 2024 [46]: Charles et Alexandre Grüss, Kolev Sisters, Les éléphantes de Elvis et Cvetomira Errani, Dr. Alain Frère et Mr. Urs Pilz 2025 [47]: Galkynysh Equestrian Group – Turkmenistan 2026 [48]: The Flying Fuentes Gasca, Troupe Suining, Angelina Richter ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo is yearly circus festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

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