The 32nd edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) begins on Friday, June 20, bringing over 5,000 artists from 82 countries to the city.

The events will take place over ten days and will transform the city into an "open-air stage, with large-scale productions, impressive installations, parades, fire shows, live music, aerial dances, and street artistic interventions."

Sibiu's Grand Square will host performances, including Ymir's Dream, featuring a 12-meter-high, stylized human figure and a 60-meter metal spiral suspended from a 200-ton crane, part of the Transe Express show in France.

In the Lower Square, spectators will be able to see the installations made of recyclable materials of the Catalan company Tombs Creatius, and various circus performances. Bălcescu Street will be animated by musical parades, dancers on stilts, batucada, samba, and more.

Various shows - from flamenco to acrobatics and contemporary circus - will take place in Habermann Square and Sub Arini Park. Theater Square will host two multimedia shows featuring drones and lights that will officially open and close the festival.

The festival brings to Sibiu actor Bill Murray, actress Kathleen Turner, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, the winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, but also Romanian artists, such as companies Teatrul pe Roși, Circ Discret, Școala de Circ din Timișoara, the PulsaR band, Fanfara de la Cozmești (Cozmești Brass band), or Elijah Association.

(Photo: Opreanu Roberto Sorin/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com