Skip to content
Magic Circus, the Dutch Urban Circus is a circus that appears in the suburbs of the biggest cities of The Netherlands. It brings so much more than just entertainment to these areas. It helps to improve the quality of life and social cohesion. Simply by bringing people together to enjoy themselves.
Humble beginnings
In 1987 Maurice Veldkamp and Rob Ritman purchased the Circus Piste from Willem Boekschooten. After traveling under names such as Piste and Royal. They eventually created a formula in which a lot of emphasize was on magical elements during their performances. It called for a name change and the Magic Circus was born. Magic Circus has since become a household name in many Dutch cities. They listen carefully to what their audience likes and dislikes and adapt their show and the kind of acts they book.
Magic Circus is also unique because they are the missing link between highly subsidised theatrical circuses and classical circuses. They never featured big and/or wild animals in their performances, but always focused on human acrobatic accomplishments. Since 2010 they slowly started to fase out animals all together. Since the early retirement of the last performing chicken in 2020 the performances have been all human. Although a big ‘real’ Gorilla appeared in the 2022 production.
Circus as it wasn’t and isn’t meant to be
Regular society is already different from the circus world. But Magic Circus, especially, is even more peculiar. Its team is proud to present circus as it wasn’t and isn’t meant to be. Forget everything you think you know about circus. Prepare yourself to be not only amazed but also enchanted. Magic Circus tries very successfully to break with many circus conventions. Their position right in the middle between modern and classical circus makes them the rebels of the Dutch classical circus world and (in some ways) the conservatives of the modern Dutch circus world.
Every year a brand-new performance is created during the first weeks of the season. Acts and ideas are tested out on live audiences. As a matter of fact this is done deliberately. The circus team doesn’t care most about ‘arty farty’ storylines or deep meanings. Obviously the Magic Circus productions have a message. But the team refuses to push it down people’s throats. Or to force a message into a performance. Circus is entertainment with a capital C of Culture. This entertainment aspect is respected and best ensured by presenting a show most people love to see. As Magic Circus is not funded by the government we need to give the people what they want. Our existence fully relies on our visitors.
Check the tour dates on this website and be sure to discover Netherland’s favourite circus.