Tini Tinou 2026: Contemporary Circus Takes Over Siem Reap and Battambang

Editorial team
1 day ago
3 min read

From 17 to 24 November 2026, the Tini Tinou International Circus Festival returns for an unprecedented 13th edition, split for the first time between Siem Reap and Battambang. Organised by Phare Ponleu Selpak and its social enterprise Phare, The Cambodian Circus, the festival promises to be, in the words of its organisers, "bolder, brighter, bigger" than ever, bringing Cambodian and international artists together under the Big Top and out into the streets.

*Official poster of the 2026 Tini Tinou International Circus Festival, in Siem Reap and Battambang*

Two cities, one flame

Named after a Khmer expression meaning "here and there," Tini Tinou lives up to its name this year. For the first time in its recent history, the festival will unfold across two of Cambodia's cultural capitals: Siem Reap hosts the opening leg from 17 to 19 November, under the Big Top at Phare, The Cambodian Circus and at venues across the city, before the festival moves to Battambang from 21 to 24 November, centred on Phare Ponleu Selpak's historic campus and spilling out into the streets.

The programme includes contemporary productions by Cambodian and international troupes, exclusive collaborative performances pairing Khmer and foreign artists, a street parade through Battambang, workshops, craft markets, professional exchanges, and a string of free pop-up shows performed in public spaces — a Tini Tinou tradition since its earliest days.

A festival born out of the aftermath of war

Tini Tinou is no ordinary festival. It is the direct legacy of Phare Ponleu Selpak, the association founded in Battambang in 1994 by nine young refugees and a French art therapist, in the years following the Khmer Rouge genocide, when nearly all forms of art had been banned and countless artists killed. The name "Phare" carries a double meaning — French for "lighthouse," and also an acronym referring to the human and artistic heritage of refugees and their children.

Created in 2003, the festival was long organised in partnership with the French Institute before becoming, from 2008 onward, an entirely Phare-run production. Over the following editions it expanded to Phnom Penh and then Siem Reap, before the pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020. Its return in 2022, followed by the 2024 edition marking Phare's 30th anniversary, confirmed the renewed vitality of an event its organisers now describe as the only international circus festival in the entire ASEAN region.

An edition built around a milestone anniversary

The 2026 programme will notably mark the 40th anniversary of Phare's origins, with a performance tracing the association's journey from the refugee camps to the international stage. The festival will also premiere the first-ever production born of a collaboration between Phare and Australia's Arc Circus, bringing Cambodian and Australian artists together on the same bill, alongside the opening of a permanent gallery dedicated to artworks created by Cambodian refugee children in the camps of the 1980s and 1990s — a little-known and precious chapter of the country's artistic history.

Another highlight: the festival will host the Circus Asia Network's Annual General Meeting, bringing together producers, artists and cultural organisations from across Asia and reinforcing Cambodia's growing role as a regional hub for contemporary circus.

A calendar built for cultural tourism

The timing is no accident. The Siem Reap leg follows directly on from the Francophonie Summit, in the hope of drawing in delegates and international visitors already in the country. The Battambang leg, meanwhile, coincides with Cambodia's Water Festival celebrations, a period of heavy domestic travel, giving Cambodian families another reason to discover the city as a cultural destination.

A festival that speaks in numbers

The previous edition, the 12th, brought together 117 artists from 10 countries and drew more than 14,000 spectators, with an estimated online reach of over 14 million people through social media and press coverage. Since its Big Top first opened in Battambang in 2006, Phare has welcomed more than 368,000 spectators to its shows, and in 2022 the association made headlines by setting a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous circus performance — 24 hours, 10 minutes and 30 seconds of non-stop acts, staged in the middle of the pandemic to help save the institution.

With this 13th edition now spanning two cities, the organisers' ambition is clear: to firmly establish contemporary circus as a lasting pillar of Cambodia's cultural landscape, strengthen cultural tourism in both Siem Reap and Battambang, and position the kingdom as a regional gateway for contemporary circus within ASEAN.