Shows
The circus is in town: the Cirque du Soleil sets up in MalagaMore than a hundred people help raise the Big Top on the Malaga fairground, the gateway to the magical world of Kurios
Añádenos en Google The Big Top, with a capacity of 2,500 spectators, is already standing. (Migue Fernández) 30/05/2026 a las 16:27h.It is the ritual that gives way to magic, the gateway to the world of the impossible and the "most difficult yet". Cirque du Soleil ... has put up its big top on the Malaga fairground, a 'big top' that will be the focal point of this special circus.
It took more than a hundred people to put up the structure, which is 52 metres in diameter and 25 metres high. But the really important things will happen inside. From 4 June to 5 July, strange characters from a parallel universe called Kurios will live there (tickets on sale from 49 euros).
To the cry of "one, two, push", the workers - some 70 of them locals - tightened the poles that hold up the tarpaulin in a perfectly controlled choreography. Wearing helmets, waistcoats, safety shoes and always within the area marked out a week before by the company's technicians. Here everything is taken care of down to the last detail. And so, in stages, the Big Top took shape: 2,500 spectators will be able to occupy it at each performance.
"We have the structure and now we have to fill it," explained Txibu Gorbea, the show's deputy head of sound. In his case, 74 loudspeakers of six different types will be placed in their positions to achieve the surround sound that characterises Cirque du Soleil. "This is a machine in which we all have to be well hooked up to the gears, tooth by tooth, for it to work."
Kurios' has all the company's strengths, but its retro-futuristic 'steampunk' aesthetic gives it an identity of its own.
And Kurios. Cabinet of Curiosities is precisely about gears, machinery and artefacts. It has the strong points of the Canadian company: numbers that push the acrobat's body to the limit and the spectator's emotion, a parade of magical beings, impressive costumes and live music.
But this is different from the rest of the company's shows because of its aesthetics: as opposed to the fantasy of others, here the 'steampunk' retro-futurism dominates, transporting the audience to an alternative 19th century, where technology advances at the pace of a steam locomotive creating strange artefacts.
In this context, an eccentric scientist opens his cabinet of curiosities and unleashes his imagination, discovering a marvellous and unexpected world, a very marked common thread that does not always exist in other shows. The music is also unique: cabaret, jazz and vintage sounds impose themselves here on the epic tone so characteristic of Cirque du Soleil.
Operators lifting the poles supporting the tarpaulin. (Migue Fernández)For this parallel reality to be activated, seven more days of on-site assembly are needed. Moving the enormous number of elements that make up the show is always a challenge, but in this case it is even more so: 464 props are used on stage in Kurios, the highest number used in any Cirque du Soleil show. On stage there will be everything, everywhere: from two large giant structures made from old objects and scrap metal to small artefacts, including an immense 340-kilo mechanical hand that supports some of the acts.
In each city, the company hires 150 people to accompany its team of 120 professionals.
The large canvas, white on the outside and blue on the inside, acts as the central element of a circus complex with different areas. The artists' tent with direct access to the stage is already up and running. Acrobats, tightrope walkers and contortionists train there in shifts during the day and warm up there before their act.
This is also where the costume makers work: more than a hundred costumes have been made to measure for this production in Montreal from strong, light and elastic fabrics.
Every night, two people wash all the clothes that have touched the performers' skin that day for two hours on site. In total, the company travels with more than 8,000 pieces of costume, including accessories, shoes and wigs. Make-up is the responsibility of each artist.
In each city, the company hires 150 people to accompany its team of 120 professionals. Scattered around the site are the modules that serve as administrative offices, the box office will be installed and one of the nerve centres of the backstage of Cirque du Soleil will not be missing: the dining room for the team where up to 400 meals a day are served.
Always healthy and energetic food for the 'athletes', freshly cooked dishes, without soft drinks or alcohol. The dining room is decorated with flags from around thirty countries of all the nationalities present in the company so that, although they do not stop travelling around the world, they feel at home.