Tini Tinou International Circus Festival: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Siem Reap)

When the circus spills onto the street

For one week, circus in Siem Reap moves out from under the canvas. Acrobats, jugglers and clowns from more than 10 countries share the town with the Cambodian performers who already work here year-round. Over 100 artists take part. Some shows are ticketed, and the parades and street performances are free and happen in public.

Tini Tinou is ASEAN’s only biennial international circus festival, so it comes round every other year. The 2026 edition runs from November 17 to 24. Siem Reap shares the programme with Battambang, the river town to the west where much of Cambodia’s modern circus tradition was trained.

Dates and the two-city split

The festival runs across eight days, November 17–24, 2026, in two cities.

• Siem Reap: the base for most international visitors, close to Angkor and the airport.
• Battambang: Cambodia’s second-largest city, roughly three to four hours west by road.

The festival is rooted in Battambang. It grew out of Phare Ponleu Selpak, the arts school and NGO there that trains young Cambodians in circus, music and visual art. Many people who come for the festival stay in one city. Others spend a few nights in each so they see both halves of the programme.

The free half: parades and street shows

The free events are what make Tini Tinou feel like a festival. Parades and street shows sit alongside the ticketed performances, and a visiting troupe can turn a pavement into a stage for twenty minutes.

These shows suit families and anyone in town for the temples who hasn’t planned an evening around a performance. Street audiences in Cambodia stand close, children push to the front, and nobody minds if you drift in halfway through. Bring small notes if you want to tip a street performer. Tipping is welcome but nobody expects it.

Tickets, venues and the programme

The organiser publishes the daily programme, venues and ticket links through the festival’s own channels and those of Phare Ponleu Selpak. This guide gives no prices or show times because none were supplied. The organiser’s listings are the place to find both.

Siem Reap’s year-round circus is Phare, The Cambodian Circus. It performs in a big top in town, and its artists are graduates of the Battambang school. The festival brings visiting companies into that same world. Expect contemporary circus that tells stories through acrobatics, physical theatre and live music, rather than a traditional animal circus.

Watching a show in Siem Reap

Siem Reap is small, and the way people get around shapes the evening.

• Getting there: most visitors take a tuk-tuk, either hailed on the street or booked through PassApp or Grab, which both work in Siem Reap. Settle the fare before you set off if you hail one.
• Paying: US dollars and Cambodian riel both circulate. Small change often comes back in riel, so expect a mix of the two.
• Seating: audiences at circus shows here are relaxed. People who care about a front-row view usually turn up before the crowd for ticketed shows.
• Etiquette: applause mid-act is normal and the performers feed off it. Most companies don’t allow flash photography during acts, for the artists’ safety.

After the show, Pub Street and the Old Market (Psar Chas) are a short ride away, and that’s where most of the late-evening food and drink is.

Making the trip to Battambang

Battambang is a slower, quieter city than Siem Reap. Its riverside is lined with French-era shophouses, and the Sangkae River runs through the middle. Phare Ponleu Selpak’s campus sits on the outskirts, which makes this the festival’s home ground.

Buses and shared taxis run between the two cities along the main road, and the trip takes roughly three to four hours. A scenic boat route also runs across the Tonle Sap and up the Sangkae, but it is much slower and depends on water levels. Visitors who do both cities usually travel by day so they get to their evening show rested.

Battambang’s other well-known sights fill the daylight hours between festival events:

• the bamboo train
• Phnom Sampeau and its bat cave
• Wat Ek Phnom

Fitting it around Angkor

Mid-to-late November is a good time to be in Siem Reap. The rainy season is ending, the countryside is still green and the moats around the temples are full. The cooler, drier months are beginning, so evenings outdoors are pleasant for street shows.

The festival fits easily around a temple pass. Visitors usually spend mornings at Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm, rest through the hottest part of the day, and keep the evening for circus. Temples in the morning and a show at night is how most people combine the two during festival week.

It is also worth remembering why the festival matters. The Cambodian circus came out of a project to give young people a trade and a voice through the arts. Watching their graduates perform on the same programme as international companies, in their own country, is the reason Tini Tinou is worth planning a November trip around.