Artistic director Wendy Moonen says goodbye to Circolo

After more than 15 years, our beloved Wendy Moonen, artistic director of Festival Circolo, bids farewell to the festival. She has been a fixture on our team since Circolo’s very beginning in 2007. The first five years as talent development coordinator and then as inspirational artistic director. As a booster, with a big heart for circus, she helped shape our festival into what it is today: a ten-day celebration of contemporary circus at the cutting edge. A place where we always welcome trailblazers and groundbreakers who break new ground.
Now she is going to blaze new trails herself. Away from Festival Circolo, away from the circus, on to new adventures.

Wendy Moonen: “I have been fully immersed in the world of contemporary circus for the past 15 years. And it’s a warm bath. A small world of driven, talented, hard-working people living for their passion: CIRCUS. My work was also my passion. Travelling to all the amazing festivals, seeing the performances, coming up with new plans, talking to the creators and sharing all that beauty with our audiences. Contributing to a field in full development, I have been doing it with dedication and energy for the past few years, and the work is far from over. Yet lately, I got an increasingly strong feeling that there is another world to explore as well.”

“It is time to hand over the baton to someone else. After 15 years of Circolo, I felt the need for a new adventure. I look for new challenges and new paths. Where those will take me I don’t know yet. But for now, I’m not gone yet. I will still be working for Circolo until the summer of 2023 so that there is enough time to properly complete ongoing projects. Hope to see you all at the Railway Park in October to still fully enjoy the great performances we are presenting at our festival this year.”

At the end of Festival Circolo 2022, we shoot Wendy from a cannon into the wide world. A process to find a successor will be launched after the festival.