Tini Tinou 2026: circus festival expands to Siem Reap and Battambang

Phare Ponleu Selpak launches an "Angkor to Arts Corridor" from 17 to 24 November, with more than 100 artists and the opening of a museum of children's drawings from Site 2.

An acrobat thrown through the air in front of the Tini Tinou 2026 banner, watched by his partners on the Phare stage

Phare Ponleu Selpak unveiled the 13th Tini Tinou International Circus Festival on 20 October. This year the festival runs in two cities: Siem Reap from 17 to 19 November, then Battambang from 21 to 24 November. The theme is "Bolder. Brighter. Bigger."

The organisation is working with the Cambodia Tourism Board (CTB). It calls the route the "Angkor to Arts Corridor": a link between the heritage of Angkor and Battambang's contemporary arts scene. The festival falls over the Water Festival holiday, and the organisers are counting on travellers, foreign and Cambodian, to carry on from one city to the other.

Siem Reap, then Battambang

In Siem Reap, the festival is centred on Phare, The Cambodian Circus. Free pop-up shows are planned at Pub Street, the Royal Garden and the riverfront at Treeline Hotel. The programme also includes workshops, family activities, caricaturists, face painting and local food stalls.

In Battambang, the Phare Ponleu Selpak campus is the main hub. A Grand Circus Street Parade will start at the Independence Monument and finish at the Seh Sor roundabout. The programme adds performances, exchanges between artists, panel discussions, evening shows and an arts and crafts market.

More than 100 artists

A pyramid of acrobats balanced on their hands, surrounded by partners and musicians, during a festival rehearsal

More than 100 performers and artists are announced. The release lists links to Cambodia, France, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, India, Japan and South Korea.

Highlights include:

•          the world premiere of a co-production between Phare and Australia's ARC Circus, mixing Cambodian acrobatics and physical theatre;

•          the Cambodian premiere of NÄSS by Fouad Boussouf (Le Phare), which blends hip-hop with North African rhythms;

•          "The Dead Can Dance", the show for Phare's 40th anniversary, a fable inspired by the organisation's own history;

•          the annual general meeting of the Circus Asia Network, with a pitch session for artists.

A museum for the Site 2 drawings

The festival will also open the Phare Heritage Museum on the Phare Commons campus in Battambang. It will show about 200 framed drawings made in the 1980s and 1990s by displaced Cambodian children at the Site 2 refugee camp.

The drawings go back to Phare's beginnings. The association was founded in Battambang in 1994 by nine young Cambodian refugees and a French art therapist, in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Tini Tinou has existed since 2003 and has been run entirely by Phare since 2008.

What the organisers say

Osman Khawaja, executive director of Phare Ponleu Selpak, calls the festival "an open invitation to the world: come to Cambodia not only to marvel at our ancient stone temples, but to feel the heartbeat of our living, contemporary culture."

Project director Khuon Chanreaksmey sees it as a way to move the country's image beyond heritage alone. By linking the two cities, he says, visitors get a real reason to stay longer.

The CTB funds part of the overseas promotion through its Matching Grant programme, which co-invests up to USD 20,000 per event. Its chief executive, Kim Minea, says Tini Tinou has not yet won the international recognition it deserves. Ponlork Van, Phare's marketing and communications manager, announces a digital campaign aiming for more than 20 million views worldwide.

Practical information

Programme and tickets: www.tinitinou.com. Press contact: Ponlork Van, ponlork.v@phareps.org, +855 (0)89 555 702.