Performers are getting out on the streets and creating magic.
The entire world is the stage, the performers participating in the Cest is d’Best Festival on the streets of Zagreb agreed. The Zrinjevac park area, Flower Square, Ban Jelačić Square, and the surrounding streets abound with musicians, balloon artists, acrobats and circus performers. They themselves say there is nothing else in the world they would be happier to do at this point than what they are doing now – creating the magic, reports Večernji List on May 29, 2016.
“I stand on the street and all of a sudden there is a big group of people surrounding me. That is where the challenge is”, said Agro the Clown who is entertaining the residents of Zagreb at Flower Square. Agro, who comes from Italy, added that he knew he wanted to become a street performer from his school days, when he kept bothering his friends with card tricks.
“You do not get to choose this job, it chooses you”, said Agro, and Mario Japec, or rather Balonko clown, agreed with him. Dogs, giraffes, rabbits, mice and cats are just some of figures he can create using balloons. It all started when he was a kid who tried to make a dog and destroyed about a hundred balloons. “It is all about practice, there are no special skills involved”, he said modestly. Balonko will be performing in downtown Zagreb until 5 June.
Those who would like not only to watch the tricks but to try doing them themselves can go to Zrinjevac, where Ivo Frangeš, the master of slackline (an elastic 5 centimetre wide ribbon), will be waiting for them. “The slackline was first used by alpinists as a training tool, and this is how I got in touch with it eight years ago”, Frangeš said. He instructs children how to walk on the rope. When they learn how to do it, they can also visit Svjetlana and Luisa, who are very skillful in turning kids into cats, princesses or ninja turtles.
