Eight solos or duos are picked to perform on a 9-metre outdoor round stage in Cologne in May 2027, at EUR 400 net per performer with travel, accommodation and meals covered.
A paid performance call for short work built to be watched from every side. Solo or duo, in the air or on the floor, eight to fifteen minutes, on a 9-metre round outdoor stage with a 7-metre rig above it.
The one thing that disqualifies most submissions is not quality. It is that the piece was made for a front-facing audience and is being offered here anyway. They are explicit that 360° dramaturgy is the point.
Performances run across three days in May 2027: 14 May and 16 May are the international programmes, 15 May is a country focus. Four works per day. Eight works are selected from this international call and four from a separate Lithuanian call.
Each performer receives a net fee of EUR 400. A duo work receives EUR 800, all taxes included. Travel and transport are covered up to EUR 300 per person, along with accommodation and meals. If your costs will run higher than that, the festival asks you to say so in the application.
Selected artists are also invited to the three-day 360° Artist Summit, free of charge and including accommodation, meals, workshops, discussions and the performance programme. Taking part is optional but you confirm it with your application, and in exchange you either give a workshop or join an artist talk.
The stage is 9 metres in diameter, 0.5 m high, laid with a dance carpet, surrounded by a 7-metre-high truss structure for aerial work on a 5 by 5 m rig. One tonne working load on a single point, or 500 kg on each of two points. Seating for 130, audience all the way around. A festival technician supervises the stage and can run simple music cues, a rigger from the technical team supervises truss setups, and technical helpers are on hand for quick changeovers. A short rehearsal on site is possible on your performance day.
- ·Solo or duo work, in the air or on the floor, lasting between 8 and 15 minutes.
- ·The work has to have a 360° dramaturgy and speak to an audience placed all around the stage. An extract of a longer piece is allowed, but it has to be coherent on its own and conceived for the round. This is not a format for try-outs.
- ·It has to work outdoors and in daylight, with an easy technical setup suitable for a shared evening of short works, and fit the stage's technical conditions.
- ·Graduates of circus or dance schools, self-taught artists, young artists, late-career changers and cross-disciplinary artists are all named as welcome. Applicants still in training are not eligible.
- ·The focus is on work from around Europe, for travel and sustainability reasons and because travel is capped at EUR 300 per person. Applications from outside Europe are welcome in principle if you can secure additional travel funding yourself; the festival suggests asking your embassy or a national funding body.
- ·The festival says its focus is on physical work rather than predominantly language-based work.
- ·Applications from women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and people with a disability or a refugee or migration background are explicitly welcomed.
- ·The format is for work that tours without dedicated technical staff. The festival cannot cover costs for a technician, manager or producer travelling with you, though they can join the networking activities and the team will help them find low-cost accommodation.