STREET PERFORMANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2013 - CORK

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                                             CARNIVAL TIME, PATRICK STREET, CORK

A carnival descended on St. Patrick's Street in Cork on Saturday 21^st and Sunday 22^nd July.  The street was pedestrianized and almost 90,000 people came to town for the final weekend of the Street Performance World Championship 2013 - www.spwc.ie .  There were four main performing areas along the main thoroughfare.  Street performers from all over the world arrived in Cork to entertain the crowds for two days in glorious sunshine.  Mixing fire with freak show, burlesque with beat box, mime with magic this was going to be a bumpy ride.

 CIRQUE NO PROBLEM

 

I was particularly taken by last years winners, a Hungarian acrobatic husband and wife team, Uri and Noa Weiss of Cirque No Problem.  Their act involved a portable trapeze. They have developed their own theatrical style that combines clowning with clever humour and acrobatic techniques with juggling routines.  They commandeered six strong men from the audience to hold the trapeze in place while they performed daring gymnastic feats to an appreciative audience.    The crowd loved them and their finale on the trapeze miming to ‘A Total Eclipse of the Heart’ was hilarious.   

                                                           ZAP CIRCUS

Zap Circus from Australia was similar to Cirque No Problem.  The performance included a couple clowning with humour and acrobatic techniques but instead of a trapeze they performed with fire.  They were not as polished and fluid as Cirque No Problem but they entertained the crowd no less.  Some of the acts weren’t to my taste.  I don’t like watching contortionists. People squeezing themselves through tennis rackets (Alakazam) or deforming their faces with rubber bands (Rubberband Boy) leave me cold.  However, Alakazam the Australian daredevil contortionist proved popular and came a respectable third by squeezing and squashing himself in and out of eye-watering positions.

LORDS OF STRUT

 

Overall winners Lords of Strut boogied, bent and back-flipped their way in spandex pants to the world title.  Lords of Strut members Sean-tastic and Famous Seamus called themselves ‘Ireland’s hardest-working man band’.    Their win was made extra special as the Cork-based act performed their final shows on St Patrick’s Street, where they honed the act in their early days. 
 

                                            BABIES IN BUBBLES ON PATRICK STREET

Families were well catered for.    I spotted harnessed children climbing a wooden contraption and other children having a superb time tumbling inside plastic bubbles in a makeshift water pool outside Brown Thomas.  Squeals could be heard from a tall swirling slide as kids hurtled round and round to the bottom.  The Carousel was a big attraction and the food stalls kept people fed and watered for the weekend.  The event was well organised and it was a great idea to move it from Fitzgerald’s Park where it has been for the past couple of years and bring it right into the heart of the city.  Organisers estimated there were 205,000 people in Dublin’s Merrion Square for the championship's first performances the previous weekend.  Congratulations to all the street performers who entertained over 300,000 people over two weekends in Cork and Dublin. 

                                                ADVENTUROUS CLIMBING CHILDREN
 

                                   MARIE ANTOINETTE CHARMS A PASSER-BY