MUCH Festival

MUCH Festival emerged to support artists in the field of contemporary circus in Central and Eastern Europe. Our goal is to connect the scattered regional circus community in addition to building bridges between like-minded artists, professionals and festivals in the region. MUCH Festival and the More Grant programme were dreamt up by the Budapest-based OneTwoMany Collective, a newly formed group of artists and cultural organisers. In collaboration with Trafó House of Contemporary Arts (HU) and Inspiral Circus Center (HU) and with international partners from the region such as Cirkusfera (SRB), Cirqueon (CZ) and Kejos (PL), the festival and grant are designed to become a yearly event of circus art in the region.

MUCH Festival 2024 will feature 3 full length circus shows, 3 work in progress presentations, 3 roundtable discussions and a competition of short format contemporary circus acts, called MUCH MORE Showcase. The competition will award the winners with the More Grant.

What is the More Grant? The MUCH Festival will feature a showcase of circus acts of artists who are inspired to create longer format shows, but lack funding or professional support. A professional jury will select a project who receives More Grant: a year-long creation mentoring programme with residencies, financial support, work-in-progress presentations, a premier on the subsequent MUCH festival as well as 6 shows at Sziget Festival 2025.

What is the MUCH More Showcase? It is a competition of circus acts on the Sunday of MUCH Festival. Circus artists can apply through the given form until 1 March. Members of OneTwoMany will choose up to 12 projects to present a 3-8 minute act at the MUCH More Showcase, 28th of April 2024. The international jury will read the written applications beforehand and after watching the live presentations will choose one creation that will receive the More Grant.

Where and When? MUCH Festival will take place between 26-28 April 2024, at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest, Hungary. See the full programme of the festival here