Next Door Circus Magazine Next Door Circus Magazine #2 | Page 42

spectators that I had the chance to talk
with during the festival have been coming to CIRCa for several years, and the
few that were there for the first time felt
confident they would return next year.
Of course, the scale of CIRCa’s impact is
due to the prestige of the festival, the rich
quality of the artistic propositions, and
the extensive advertising and communication surrounding the festival. Over the
years, CIRCa has developed important
media partners, including La dêpêche,
Télérama événment, Institut Français,
and Hors Les Murs. But we cannot ignore
the fact that the festival is a reason to talk
about Auch, and to draw people’s attention to Midi-Pyrenées.

The festival boosts local economy
The festival represents direct income for
the tourism industry, bringing profit to
hotels, restaurants, and local small businesses. Additionally, the ticket sales from
the festival are an important support for
the biggest cultural institution of the city.
Marc Fouilland, the director of CIRCa, told
us that a survey of festivals in the region
has shown that 1 € of subvention represents around € 10 of economic benefits.
In the case of the CIRCa festiva, this means about € 4 million in economic benefit
to Auch

A survey of festivals in
the region has shown
that 1 euro of subvention
represents around 10
euros of economic benefits. In the case of the
CIRCa festival, this means about 4 million euros
in economic benefit to
Auch

Making a spectator into a tourist
There’s no question that the main priority
for tourists attracted to the festival is to
see circus shows. That said, the cultural
tourism brings major benefits to the city.
Sometimes festival visitors return to Auch
during the year to see shows featured in
the normal program. And most visitors
pass by Toulouse, the capital of the region. Toulouse is a city with two important circus institutions, La Grainerie and
the Lido school, as well as a lot of other
interesting cultural attractions.
In 2012, CIRCa relocated to the city centre, near a cinema, making visitor involvement in the city itself unavoidable. To
further encourage city interaction, the
festival also spread performances in theaters across the city. This year there were
free shows in the central square and two
circus tents mounted in the historical city
centre. The festival also organized various
guided tours of the town, as well as a
conference, « When artist paint circus… »
at the Jacobins Museum.
Do people who come to the festival really visit other cultural attractions in the
region, and do they ever come back?
Unfortunately, there are no surveys about
this topic and they would be very hard
to conduct. What is certain is that most

6 out of 11 show venues
were located in the city
centre, and the festival
organised 5 guided visits
to the old town.
Together with local community
A huge festival like CIRCa cannot happen
without the support of local community: this year, 200 volunteers, mostly from
Auch, helped organize the festival. There
were 13 teams working on different tasks:
decoration, cultural activities, restoration,
sales, information, telecommunications,
receiving audience, and the schools, transportation and shuttle-busses, bar, radio
and statistics.
In this small town, 200 volunteers is a lot.
And it helps the locals to feel a part of the
festival: those who were not volunteers
often know someone who was.
Fighting against generation gap
People of all ages volunteered: teenagers,
retired people, and adults who specifically request time off to participate. It was
a surprise for me, because when I think
about volunteers in Latvia, I usually imagine students, young people who have
just finished high school, or occa