Various venues, July 2-11, junctionfestival.com

It's the 10th anniversary of Clonmel Junction Festival, the multi-arts event, and like many 10-year-olds, it has decided to run away with the circus. This year's programme has placed clowns, acrobats and contortionists centre stage, extending its theme in all directions like the spreading canvas of a big top. The reason is simple: times of gloom require acts of cheer and festival director David Teevan has assembled a wide variety of variety acts.

Traditional circus is represented by Fossett's (Jul 9-11), but theirs is also an evolving tradition, moving away from animal acts towards different physical spectacles. Elsewhere, circus skills combine with theatricality in Montreal's Les Parfait Inconnus (pictured) and their Rock 'n' Roll Circus Show (Jul 4-7), combining clowning, acrobatics and live music; while Ireland's excellent Tumble Circus - stars of Barabbas's recent Circus - present a new comically autobiographical piece, Nouvelle Carny (July 7-8).

For another unlikely reflection, Barcelona's Ponten Pie match clowning and foodstuffs in Copacabana (July 3-6), while Ireland's Cirque de Légume continues its comic feast with grocery leftovers (July 9-10).

Other events - Faulty Towers, The Parting Glassand Mike Daisey- extend the festival rubric beyond the trapeze, but a themed symposium, a Charivari parade and a world of cheer and candyfloss focus on many techniques of the circus and all of the fun.

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Bog Boy, Project Arts Centre, Dublin