‘Food to the backflips’: Festival welcomes food truck turned circus act

The Alberta Circus Arts Festival will feature a unique act from Quebec for the first time. CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum has more on Cirque Kikasse.

The Alberta Circus Arts Festival in Edmonton’s French quarter will spill over to Happy Beer Street on Sunday with a food truck turned circus apparatus.

New to the three-day festival that started Thursday is Cirque Kikasse, a performance troupe from Quebec that claims to set a stage unlike any other in Canada.

“It is a travelling circus with a truck, but it doubles as a food truck and a beer truck, so it’s a three-in-one turn-key party zone,” explained co-founder William Poliquin-Simms.

“We do the circus and then we do the service afterwards. We do everything ourselves, from driving the truck to the food to the backflips.”

While the 12-foot-tall truck is central to the show, it’s not the only component. The group also uses a trampoline and some of their acrobatics take them 40 feet into the air.

“I saw their show in Montreal and I thought, ‘This is incredible.’ I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the festival’s executive and artistic director, Annie Dugan.

“I want people to see amazing contemporary circus and then think, ‘I want to do it.’ We have three circus schools in Edmonton. There are lots of places that anyone can learn how to do circus arts and then be in one of our shows.”

Similarly, Poliquin-Simms and his co-founder created Cirque Kikasse in 2021 to fill a gap in Canada’s industry.

However, this is the first time they’ve been in western Canada.

“Even if it’s raining on Sunday, we’re going to make the audience as comfortable as possible. We’re going to try to bring a tent. We encourage people to have a raincoat. And we’re going to do the performance – even in the rain,” Poliquin-Simms promised.

The show at 2 p.m. on Sunday will be free.

Dugan said, “Life is hard. We all need some things to look forward to, some things that don’t break the bank, some things we can take the family, the grandparents, the neighbours, and all just go out and celebrate community and summer.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum