Ukraine's young circus artists wow Budapest after training

A festival for young circus artists from Ukraine was hosted in Budapest this week. The event showcased the talents of children who were forced to train underground or without electricity.

After months of practice in their hometowns of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Dnipro and Odesa, Donetsk was home to the children aged 6-17 who performed more than 30 shows alongside other competitors from Hungary and Mexico at Budapest's Capital Circus.

Peter Fekete, director of Budapest Circus, stated that the children were training in air raid shelters at night by candlelight. "We thought there should be a place where their talents and knowledge could be displayed," he said.

"We must have faith in them that it is worth doing it, it is worth the training. So we stopped our regular program for two days in January and... handed the circus over to our Ukrainian friends."

Mariia Kravchenko (13 years old) was a circus artist from Dnipro in eastern Ukraine. She had been training for the festival in unheated shelters during the Russian invasions.

She said: "I trained in Dnipro's circus but now we have the war in Ukraine." As she was getting ready to perform her hula hooper show in Ukrainian colors with flowers in her hair, she smiled.

Bright Country (Ukraine) launched the Yaskrava Arena Dnipra international circus festival for children in 2010. It was previously held each December at Dnipro State Circus.

More than 1000 young artists from Ukraine, Lithuania, Hungary and Germany have taken part in the festival since its inception.

The winners are often invited to participate in international festivals in France and Spain.

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