The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is to have its first major venue dedicated solely to circus acts.
Circus Hub is being created and programmed by the Underbelly venue.
The venue will have a circus programme of 12 shows.
These will include two European premieres, four UK premieres, five Fringe premieres, and will feature artists from across the globe, including Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Australia, Canada and Palestine.
It will also show case five shows from the UK.
Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood, directors of Underbelly, said in a statement: "In recent years we've worked extensively in the circus scene internationally, in the UK and at the Fringe.
"Two things have become clear to us.
"Firstly, as we've seen from hit seasons of show's like Circa's Beyond which we produced at the festival in 2014, there's a huge appetite for circus at the Festival.
"Secondly, while other international festivals have been good at presenting circus, the Edinburgh Fringe has been constrained by financial considerations and the suitability of performance spaces.
"With Circus Hub, we wanted to change that, by creating a thriving focus for world class circus at the Fringe - one site presenting the largest and most technically ambitious programme of circus that the Fringe has ever seen.'
Companies will include Ockham's Razor, making their first ever appearance at the Fringe; renowned international circus companies Cirk La Putyka with Dolls and Cirque Le Roux with The Elephant In The Room, Belgium's Les Inouis and B-Orders from Palestinian Circus.
There will also be France's La Meute, and Barbu, from Canadian circus family Cirque Alfonse.
The Hogwallops and Trash Test Dummies will also perform.
Returning to Edinburgh are Limbo and Bromance, the Total Theatre Award winning show from The Edinburgh Fringe 2014.
Finally there is late-night shows from Fringe favourite Piff the Magic Dragon: Breakfast At Piffany's.
The two big tops are called The Lafayette, which has 750 seats, and The Beauty, which has 250 seats.
The Circus Hub will be on the Meadows on the city's south side.
Circus Hub will also host a community project called The Summer Collective, working together with young people from Scotland's Impact Arts 'Creative Pathways' programme.
Underbelly have established themselves as circus presenters in London with their Udderbelly and London Wonderground festivals.
Circus Hub will run from Friday 7 August to Saturday 29 August and will be open daily from 9am to midnight.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article