Following its run on the Southbank last year in the Udderbelly cow, Circus Maximus returns as a five-day competition pitting twenty acts against each other for a grand prize of £5000 and a smaller judge's award of £1000.
Organised by the National Centre for Circus Arts and Underbelly Productions in association with IdeasTap, the competition invites artists to submit videos of 5-10 minute acts for consideration by a panel of judges. Twenty acts will then be selected and spread across four heats, with one act from each being selected by audience vote to make it through to the final (alongside a 'wild card' entry chosen by the judges). The five acts in the final will then compete for the £5000 prize (determined by audience vote). All competition acts will also be given a fee of £150 per performance.
Event partner IdeasTap is running three open workshops to support applicants: at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London on 22 April, at Greentop in Sheffield on 29 April, and at Circomedia in Bristol on 2 May.
To read through the full terms see here, but note as a first condition of entry that applicants must be UK citizens or permanently resident in the UK. The competition runs 8-12 July 2014, with tech rehearsals on 6 & 7 July.
Deadline for applications is 22 May 2014.