The festival, called the 'F afete Foraine de Baie St-Paul' (Baie Saint-Paul Fair) was the precursor to Cirque du Soleil, which was organized two years later with Guy Laliberte, a fire-eater, as its founding president.ДЇounded as a nonprofit organization, Cirque du Soleil received financial backing from the Qu aaebec government, which was sponsoring celebrations for the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's arrival in Canada. Among the street performers entertaining passersby in the rural Canadian town were fire-eaters, mime artists, jugglers, and stilt-walkers, who banded together in 1982 to form the 'Club des Talons Hauts,' or the 'High-Heels Club.' The troupe, who chose their name because most of the members performed on stilts, decided to organize a festival that could serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas and techniques among street performers. During the late 1990s, the company was diversifying into new business areas, including operating retail locations that sold Cirque du Soleil merchandise, producing films and television shows, and negotiating for licensing agreements.Д¬irque du Soleil came from the street, its creation the inspiration of a group of street performers gathered in Baie Saint-Paul in the province of Qu aaebec. Headquartered in Montr aaeal, the company operated offices in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, and Singapore. In 1999 Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) had four productions touring throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific region, and four productions appearing at permanent locations in Las Vegas Orlando, Florida and Biloxi, Mississippi. produces avant-garde entertainment shows staged at permanent locations and presented to a worldwide audience through an extensive touring schedule.

Part circus, part theater, Cirque du Soleil Inc. There are no animals in a Cirque du Soleil production-only sheer human energy is put to work! Since its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil has been pleasing the public with a novel show concept that is as original as it is non-traditional: an astonishing, theatrical blend of circus arts and street performance, wrapped up in spectacular costumes and fairyland sets and staged to spellbinding music and magical lighting. NAIC: 71119 Other Performing Arts CompaniesДЄcclaimed by an audience of over 18 million worldwide, with numerous prizes and distinctions to its credit, Cirque du Soleil is a unique organization which has reinvented and revolutionized the circus arts.

Cirque du soleil merchandise