After three years of absence, the comeback in Bucharest for the International Street Theatre Festival B-FIT in the Street! has enjoyed a record number of participants. In just three festival days, over 65,000 Bucharest residents and tourists have assisted, during the weekend June 30 – July 2, 2023, to the B-FIT in the Street! #12 shows that have taken over the city streets with dozens of street music performances, famous novels large scale productions, aerial acrobatics demonstrations, live installations and encounters with gigantic, fantastic characters, while the Dâmboviţa river has been animated, for the first time, by a nocturnal show.
Started in 2008, B-FIT in the Street! is the only theatre festival in Bucharest. A landmark of the summer season in Bucharest, B-FIT in the Street! enjoys a public of at least 20,000 participants, at every edition. Having reached its twelfth edition, B-FIT in the Street!, festival organized by The Capital City Hall, through ARCUB – the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Bucharest, together with the Directorate of Culture, Education, Tourism of the Municipality of Bucharest, has taken place this year between June 30th – July 2nd, 2023.
In various spots in Bucharest, the B-FIT in the Street! spectators danced on the party music by Batucada Los Vikingos from Spain drummers, had fun with the Stilt Parrots from The Netherlands and the Dodo birds from France, took pictures of the lighted swans Les Cignes from Italy and experimented the cabaret atmosphere with the French dancers from 20’ Street Ballet.
An original presence at B-FIT in the Street! #12, the artists from Gratte Ciel French company opened the program for this edition with the newest production in their repertoire, the live installation RoZéo which fascinated the public in the University Square, with the grace and poetry of the show, in which the movements of the acrobats were dictated by the imperceptible breeze. Also in the University Square, among the audience favourites, the Italian artists from Flower Sway Poles danced on giant white flowers and received long rounds of applause on all three days of the festival.
The first day of the festival, Friday, June 30th, culminated with the colour explosion of Tawa, the aerial acrobatics show in George Enescu Square. More than 15,000 spectators put their hands together for the artists from the most famous international circus companies in a 360-degree aerial acrobatics show, in which dance and live music blended with incredible numbers of human endurance. The chromatic explosion in the show finale has transformed George Enescu Square in a playground for spectators of all ages, who enjoyed the thousands of multi-coloured confetti.
The Victory Avenue became too small on the second day of the festival at ‟The Whale Street Show” performance. The first large-scale itinerant nocturnal show in the history of the festival, the French production of Coopérative de Productions Populaires et Polymorphes has taken the thousands of spectators along the Victory Avenue from the United Nations Bridge to the Queen Elisabeth Boulevard and impressed with its visual effects, music, dance, and acrobatics.
The twelfth edition of B-FIT in the Street! activated a new location in Bucharest, the river Dâmboviţa, with the fluvial show ‟DriFT”, which gathered thousands of spectators on the Independence Embankment, on the evening of Saturday, July 1st. Famous for their shows on water, the artists from the French company Illotopie returned to Bucharest, after having turned the Cișmigiu Park lake in a night theatre stage back in 2018.
The last day of the festival gathered around 20,000 spectators on the streets of Bucharest. Among the most anticipated B-FIT in the Street! moments, the aerial acrobatics show ‟Meraviglia” in George Enescu Square took the public to a fairytale atmosphere with the Nouveau Cirque demonstrations and the high-altitude athletic performance. In the end, the much-acclaimed Italian artists were joined on stage by the Spanish musicians Batucada Los Vikingos who continued the street theatre celebration on Victory Avenue, along with the Animal Fairytale giant puppets from France and the B-FIT in the Street! fans.