How did Aalst’s CIRK! draw 35,000 visitors despite the downpours?

Street circus travels well across language boundaries. CIRK!’s official practical-information page says most performances are wordless or remain understandable without following all the dialogue. That makes the festival accessible to residents still learning Dutch, families hosting visitors from abroad and people arriving from Brussels, Ghent or elsewhere in Belgium for the day.

Aalst is a Dutch-speaking gemeente in Flanders, so official announcements, signs and last-minute schedule changes normally appear first in Dutch. Useful terms include “gratis” for free, “afgelast” for cancelled, “uitverkocht” for sold out and “verplaatst” for moved. Staff and volunteers may be able to help in French or English, but visitors should not assume that every performance or notice is multilingual. Checking the CIRK! website immediately before departure remains the safest approach when rain is forecast.

The city’s public-space model also keeps the threshold low. The official festival guidance says entry to the outdoor programme does not require a general ticket. Shows in tents or indoor venues with limited capacity may be ticketed, however, and are marked with a ticket symbol in the programme. Tickets are normally sold through the festival webshop and De Werf Cultuurhuis. If CIRK! cancels a ticketed performance, the organiser says the purchase price is refunded automatically; tickets cannot ordinarily be exchanged or refunded simply because a visitor changes plans.

For most visitors, the train is the simplest option. NMBS/SNCB station Aalst stands beside one performance area and within walking distance of the Grote Markt, Werfplein, Vredeplein, Pupillensite and other central locations. Cyclists can use the guarded bicycle parking in the town-hall courtyard, entered through Zwartezustersstraat. Drivers can use the city’s public car parks, although Stad Aalst warns of heavier traffic during the festival.

The festival information point is traditionally housed in a container on the Grote Markt. It provides programme advice and UiTPAS information, though staff do not sell tickets directly there. UiTPAS, the Flemish leisure card used by participating gemeenten and cultural institutions, lets holders collect points; residents entitled to a reduced participation tariff should check the conditions attached to their own UiTPAS region, because those benefits are not identical everywhere.

Accessibility information is built into the programme through symbols. The organiser identifies wheelchair-accessible shows and offers a limited number of wheelchair places where ticketing permits. Separate ear and eye icons indicate productions that rely mainly on visual content or, conversely, on sound, music and touch. Free squares can become crowded, so CIRK! advises wheelchair users and others needing assistance to arrive early and contact a volunteer in a festival T-shirt.

CIRK! belongs to a broader Flemish effort to treat contemporary circus as a performing art rather than only travelling entertainment. The Flemish Department of Culture, Youth and Media listed €285,000 in project support for Stad Aalst’s CIRK! programme over 2024–2026, subject to approved annual budgets. That public backing helps explain how the city can combine international companies, Belgian artists and locally rooted participation on a largely free programme.

The festival also fits Aalst’s established habit of using public space for collective performance. Carnival remains the city’s best-known cultural export, but CIRK! offers a less satirical, more family-oriented counterpart: the streets become the stage, spectators circulate instead of occupying one auditorium, and the boundary between local residents and day visitors softens. In 2024, Het Nieuwsblad reported roughly 45,000 visitors for the 15th edition. Comparing that figure directly with 2026 would be unwise without consistent counting methods and weather conditions, yet both totals point to durable public interest.

The two perspectives surrounding such an event are complementary rather than sharply opposed. Stad Aalst and the organisers emphasise cultural reach, Belgian talent and the atmosphere created across the centre. Visitors, nearby residents and accessibility users are more likely to judge success through reliable schedule updates, manageable crowds, shelter and clear route information—needs made particularly visible by this year’s downpours.

CIRK! is expected to return on 27, 28 and 29 August 2027, according to regional post-event reporting. The detailed programme, ticket prices and mobility arrangements have not yet been published. Anyone considering a first visit should watch the official CIRK! and Stad Aalst websites from summer 2027, reserve limited-capacity shows early, and keep a rainproof layer close at hand. The 2026 edition demonstrated that bad weather can alter an open-air festival, but need not erase the communal pleasure on which it depends.