Hupstate Circus Fest
2026 SCHEDULE
September 4-7, 2026
International Lover
Through trapeze, burlesque, and physical theatre, the artist abstracts their gender odyssey, Inviting the audience into their process of self-expansion.
Suggested age 18+, ASL interpreted event, This show contains themes and references to body dysmorphia, gender dysphoria, and suicide; it includes depiction of smoking and drug use on stage.
Creative Group Acrobatics Workshop
This workshop teaches you a variety of different group acrobatic styles featuring Toss, Towers and Trio Tumbling. This is an advanced circus workshop hoping to push past the basics into more complicated movement pathways and surprising acrobatic outcomes!
Prerequisites: Past experience with partner or group acrobatics is required for this workshop. Participants should posess comfort and experience with multiple swinging techniques and positions, and a solid two high - either basing or flying. All other acrobatic knowledge is a plus!
Contact us with any questions!
Age minimum: 18 (email amy@hupstatecircus.org for questions/exceptions)
ECDYSIS
ECDYSIS is a performance experience featuring Troy Lingbach. Performance art meets aerial sculpture meets dance party. Offering a critique of capitalism and the consumer relationship to plastic, the artist pushes the limits of their body, equated to innocuous waste, through performance art and circus.
Bar hosted by Open Space Cider opens at 6:00pm (boozy & sober). Show begins 7:15pm. More details to come.
Suggested age 18+. This show contains themes and references to drug use and may contain flashing lights.
Festival Cabaret (ASL interpreted)
Join us for an evening of performances and connection for our community of artists, audiences, and the circus-curious! We encourage all artists, audiences, and circus fans to come out to party!
Suggested 18+ (we never quite know what will happen at the fundraiser!)
(WORKSHOP) Contact Improv and Partnerwork with People Watching Collective
This workshop is focused on finding freedom within a structure.
We will share counterweight vocabulary, weight-transfer techniques to lift them, and tools for exploring contact points with your partner.
The idea is to create a common language in order to expand the possibilities within contact dance and improvisation.
(WORKSHOP) Acrobatics and Acro Dance Flow with People Watching Collective
The goal of this workshop is to seamlessly move through the acrobatics. We will begin by teaching the mechanics of the acrobatic movements, allowing the students to familiarize themselves with the floor, the space and their relationship to it.
International Lover
An evening with Troy and a trapeze. International Lover is the autobiographical tale of Troy Lingelbach's coming into one's self, sensuality, and gender told through aerial dance and performance art.
Ages 18+
DUSK / NIGHT / DAWN
DUSK / NIGHT / DAWN is an experimental aerial pole dance work created by Donna Carnow and Gina Alm. Combining aerial acrobatics, visual composition, and [pole] dance, they aim to share human experiences through super-human movement.
Ages 18+
(WORKSHOP) Trio Acrobatics - Building Blocks and Beyond
This workshop will focus on the building blocks of trio acrobatics and how to use those building blocks to create your own sequences.
A Raucous Evening with Thom and Benjamin
Press Bay Backlot- Free
Thom and Benjamin host an evening of Raucous performances, and connection for our community of artists, audiences, and the circus-curious! We encourage all artists, audiences, and circus fans to come out to play!
Going to a 9pm show? No worries- just come by when it’s over!
My Name is Tenacious/Vestigios (ASL interpreted)
Community School of Music and Arts
My Name is Tenacious invites the audience to a not-so-distant future to bear witness to the medicine that the end-times of our colonial world brings. Haunting and brave soundscapes, storytelling through movement, and the release that climate change ushers is honored with the creation of this sacred ritual space that touches concepts of wounds held within our identities, bodies, and the earth.
My Name is Tenacious/Vestigios
Community School of Music and Arts, Third Floor
My Name is Tenacious invites the audience to a not-so-distant future to bear witness to the medicine that the end-times of our colonial world brings. Haunting and brave soundscapes, storytelling through movement, and the release that climate change ushers is honored with the creation of this sacred ritual space that touches concepts of wounds held within our identities, bodies, and the earth.
Opening Night Cabaret hosted by Cirque Us! (ASL interpreted)
Press Bay Backlot - Free!
Cirque Us hosts an evening of ice breakers, performances, and connection for our community under our little top tent! We encourage all artists, audiences, and circus fans to come out to play. Beer and non-alcoholic drinks will be on tap and ID’s will be checked at the entrance.
PDF Schedule
